How Bizarre
by Jax Malcolm
Summary: Morpheus, god of dreams, aids a young Pokémon expert on the biggest quest of his mortal life... Through his own dream world. You haven't seen weird until you've seen this... [Complete for once!]
1. Night One: Open the Doors

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Pokémon.  
  
Foreword: Just for the record, I'm not on any sort of drug. Nothing. Zip, zilch. I'm freakin' clean!  
  
That said, I wanted to try something a bit more serious than Warp Series (Well, it SEEMED serious at the time...) as well as something that had a surreal, "experimental" feel to it. The result was this strange piece that's supposed to be one part Alice in Wonderland and one part Cat Soup. (That's an anime movie, folks. If you don't believe me, look it up yourself. I'm not bothering with summaries, either.) You can think of it as one part Monkeybone later on as well, but I've only read summaries. Never actually saw the movie. =/  
  
That said, if you get it, yay; if you don't, don't worry about it. I don't think it was meant to be completely understandable anyways. ^_^;  
  
---  
  
Night One: Open the Doors  
  
He placed the last article of clothing into the drawer and pushed it shut before placing his suitcase in the closet. With that, he plopped on the bed and stared out the window, heaving a sigh of nostalgia. He stared out at the cerulean blue sky as white forms drifted in its endless sea like peaceful, white Quagsire drifting serenely by. They reminded him of something, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly what. All he saw in his mind was a dark blur...  
  
He stood and took a few steps; his shoeless feet made barely a sound on the hardwood floors. He opened the window and leaned against the sill, raising his dark brown eyes to the pale, blue sky. A zephyr blew in, caressing his pale skin and playing with the dark curls framing his childlike face. He smiled, happy to be back in his childhood home again for the first time in almost a year.  
  
He heard a voice behind him call his name. He looked over his shoulder and straightened up, closing the window as he did.  
  
"Wills, are you here?"  
  
He sighed and crossed the room. Only one person called him by that irritating childhood nickname anymore. He poked his head out of the threshold, only to come face to face with a red-headed girl just a little younger than he was. She turned her head and to catch herself before she collided with him. They both gasped and jumped back, causing him to hit the side of the threshold and her to hit, well, nothing.  
  
"There you are, Wills!" the girl said with a smile.  
  
He rolled his eyes.  
  
"How might my dear older brother be doing?" she asked with a grin.  
  
"Quite fine, thank you," he responded politely to his younger sister.  
  
"How was the trip here?" she drilled.  
  
He replied, "Same as always. Rather well indeed."  
  
"So, what's new in your life?"  
  
He smiled. "I've been working on new theories about Pokémon development and their link to their psychological behavior. I think I've at last made a breakthrough and found a link between a Pokémon's personality and its performance in battle."  
  
The sister blinked. "That's it?"  
  
"Yes, I suppose it is."  
  
"You haven't done anything else in your life?"  
  
"No, not really."  
  
"You lead a boring life," the sister commented dryly.  
  
The brother scoffed. "What makes you think that?"  
  
"You're what? Eighteen, tomorrow nineteen, and it seems like you haven't done anything FUN in your life," the sister told him bluntly.  
  
The brother frowned. "Well, unlike SOME people, I'm forced to work."  
  
The sister shrugged and turned away. "No one is ever FORCED to do ANYTHING of the sort..."  
  
With that, she walked away, leaving him to ponder over her last words.  
  
---  
  
The sun began to set on the city known as Goldenrod. Quite odd that it was called that; there were no goldenrod flowers in and around the city, nor was there anything noteworthy within the city that happened to be golden. If anything, the city would be most appropriately called "Rose," for the sky above it always lit up with a brilliant, red-pink color as the sun descended into the horizon just beyond the skyscrapers.  
  
A darkness spread from the eastern horizon, engulfing the air above and revealing the silver specks within the celestial kingdom. The skyscrapers lit up one by one by one and stood in the busy eternity, glowing in the darkness as the hours passed one by one by one...  
  
The grandfather clock in the family room struck eleven. The sound of eleven chimes rang through the rooms of the quiet house. Down the hall and to the right, a door shut, and a back leaned against it.  
  
"Tomorrow, I'll be nineteen," the youth murmured to himself.  
  
With a sigh, he reached over to flick off the light. In the darkness, he shuffled across the hardwood floors and found his bed. He pulled the covers up and slid under, burying himself the warm sheets. He stretched out, yawned, and closed his eyes before drifting off completely into a world of serene slumber. He didn't notice as the shadows moved, as a thick, line pulled itself from a dark corner, as a dark figure rose from this line and formed a tangible being.  
  
The being's yellow eyes opened within the pale, gray face. His thin body moved within the dark wrappings, passing by the window to have the moonlight make the golden hair that stood in horns on his head seem to shine. The figure didn't stop until he stood by the youth's bed, looking down as the youth continued to sleep. A claw-like hand reached out from under the cloak he wore, touching the youth's chest.  
  
"So, you're the one they call Bill McKenzie," the figure murmured. "The one who never had a childlike dream... whose consciousness is kept busy only with numbers and scientific facts, rather than with whimsical fantasy. Tonight is the night before you lose your every chance to feel true bliss, to experience what it's like to be a true child. You don't know it, but I was sent here to make sure you felt in your heart that thing most children knew and loved."  
  
With that, the claw-like hand plunged into the youth's chest. The sleeper let loose a shuddering gasp before slumping further down, deeper into his sleep. The hand withdrew, pulling with it a ball of glowing white.  
  
"Your soul," the figure murmured. "The key to getting you to see exactly what I want you to see. But unfortunately, I can't just take you into the world and show you all those childlike things. That's because that's not in my power. I am the god of dreams, after all, not of reality. No, to get you to see what I want you to see, I must do something a bit more... drastic."  
  
The figure put his free, claw-like hand on Bill's head. There was a flash of white... before nothingness. No one was in the room, save for an empty body.  
  
---  
  
Two yellow eyes scanned the scenery. So many corridors, so many doors, so many stairs, paths, everything... all going out in different directions like a twisted, green maze of a nightmarish sort.  
  
"Such a complex mind," the figure commented. "One could get very lost in here..."  
  
The figure looked down at the ball in his hands.  
  
"And here, I have such a simple thing. Perhaps I can change that..."  
  
He set the ball down on the ground and waved his hands about it until it formed the shape of a Pokémon. When he was finished, he blew on it, causing little flakes of glowing white to fall off the body, revealing a colored, cat form of a Meowth. The figure drew back and straightened up, watching as the eyelids of the Meowth twitched and a groan escaped its throat. The eyelids finally lifted, allowing the cat to look about and acknowledge the presence of the figure.  
  
"Where am I?" the Meowth asked in a very human voice as he sat up. "Who are you? What am I doing here? Did you bring me here?"  
  
At last, his cat eyes fell upon what parts of his body he could see. He gasped and jumped into a standing position, recognizing the body parts he glanced at.  
  
"What happened to me!?" the Meowth demanded. "How on Earth did I turn into a Meowth!?"  
  
The figure grinned and clicked his tongue. "Ah, yes. You always loved asking questions, Bill. But please, I can only answer one question at a time."  
  
"Alright, then let's start off with one," Bill growled as he looked at the figure. "Who are you?"  
  
"I am Morpheus, god of dreams," the figure responded.  
  
"Morpheus?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"I must be dreaming."  
  
Morpheus grinned. "You are."  
  
"Oh, good," Bill responded with a sigh of relief. "I thought I was going insane."  
  
Morpheus' grin widened. "You will."  
  
The Meowth tilted his head. "Come again?"  
  
"If you continue on the path that you are going down, you will suffer from your inability to dream like a child," Morpheus explained. "This suffering will cause the pent up dreams deep within you to erupt, taking over your mind and driving you insane. I came to you tonight to prevent this from happening by giving you all the time in the world to experience true, childlike dreams."  
  
"What?" Bill's furry face paled. "You... You can't do that!"  
  
"Yes, I can," Morpheus replied. "I'm the god of dreams. If I want a person's slumber to continue forever, then so be it."  
  
"But... But I'm needed in the real world!" Bill protested.  
  
Morpheus frowned and closed his yellow eyes. "Hmm... I can tell that you would rather be in reality than within the perfect world inside your mind. Is this true?"  
  
"Yes!" Bill shouted, causing an echo to bounce off the empty walls of the labyrinth.  
  
"Then I will bring you back," Morpheus offered. "However, I'm afraid that there's only one corridor the two of us can use to pass back into reality."  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"It resides in the Lotus Temple."  
  
"...The what?"  
  
Morpheus sighed. "Within each human being, there is a temple called the Lotus Temple. This temple enshrines things that the person holds the most dear. The dreams the person cherishes the most. The desires the person wants above everything else."  
  
"Where do I find this temple?" Bill asked.  
  
"I'm afraid I don't know," Morpheus answered. "One person's Lotus Temple, like everything else in this subconscious world, is created and placed differently than everyone else's temple. And since it's impossible for me to keep track of the location of every single Lotus Temple in the entire global population... I have no idea where yours is."  
  
Bill thought for a moment until he at last came up with a solution.  
  
"If I wished to be at my temple, and that's all I wanted, would the temple appear before me?" he inquired.  
  
Morpheus shook his head. "No. The Lotus Temple is a set place. All things are in this world, though they may change their appearance now and then. I'm afraid we'll have to search for it ourselves. That may take as long as minutes... or it may take eternity."  
  
Bill shuddered, not wanting to think about it. "Where do we start looking?"  
  
Morpheus turned around and motioned to every corridor leading to every door with one, thin hand.  
  
"Choose a door," he told Bill.  
  
Bill gulped and moved forward. Already, he could tell that this was going to be a LONG journey. He looked about the chamber, studying each door in an attempt to find out which one seemed best.  
  
Well, actually, they all seemed the SAME to him, and at this thought, he sighed greatly.  
  
Irritated by Morpheus' unwavering stare, Bill looked about quickly and chose a door. He walked straight up to it and looked up at the doorknob. He was much too short to reach it. Turning away from it, Bill faced Morpheus with a question.  
  
"Could you give me a boost?" he asked in embarrassment.  
  
"Why would I need to?" the god responded.  
  
In confusion, Bill turned back to the door, only to find the knob at eye level.  
  
Bill blinked and squeaked, "I..."  
  
Without finishing that thought, he reached up to grab it, only to have it move to the left. He stared at it for a long while in curiosity before reaching up again to grab the doorknob. It, however, moved down, away from his paw before it started giggling at him.  
  
"How utterly strange," he commented under his breath.  
  
He reached out to grab it again, but instead, it moved up. He stood there, feeling like a fool as he chased the knob about the door until, at last, he came up with an idea. He went at the knob with one hand, only to have it move away, into his other paw.  
  
"Aha!" he shouted in triumph.  
  
Suddenly, he realized his circumstances, blushed, and turned the knob. Morpheus only smiled and watched as Bill cleared his throat and opened the door. The door swung open on its hinges, revealing...  
  
Nothing.  
  
That's right. Pitch black nothingness was all there was inside the door. Curious, Bill leaned forward, inspecting the contents of the area beyond the threshold, trying to find SOMETHING residing behind the door. All of a sudden, a vacuum picked up, sucking the poor Meowth into the abyss. He flipped over and injected his claws into the floor, desperately trying to remain rooted in the green, labyrinthine room. However, the suction was powerful, and the poor cat was eventually pulled clean off the floor of the room and deep into the darkness, descending into the nothingness at a slope as he screamed.  
  
Morpheus watched it all. At last, he casually floated forward, through the doorway, and into the blackness.  
  
The door closed slowly behind him with a creak.  
  
---  
  
Bill plunged into a world of color, going at a speed too fast for him to tell what exactly the colored blurs around him were. He felt his Meowth body twisting around involuntarily, so that his paws would break his fall. He knew, however, that it wouldn't matter since SOMETHING was going to break, and it was not necessarily going to be a good thing.  
  
He looked down to see the ground closing in quickly. He closed his eyes, braced himself, and prepared to die, knowing that all would be over in the matter of seconds.  
  
All he felt was silk under him.  
  
He opened his eyes slowly and looked about him. Flower petals, all colored green or pink, scattered about beneath him, creating a cushion. He sighed with relief and stood up, dusting himself off. He didn't look up as Morpheus floated down beside him.  
  
"Suddenly, I understand the pun," Bill muttered. "'Curiosity killed the cat.'"  
  
Bill frowned, refusing to look at Morpheus and instead looking about him. He realized that he was in some sort of field, but judging by the behavior of the doorknob, he could be in a snow globe for all he knew.   
  
He took a cautious step. Was it just him, or did the ground move under him? He took another, hearing cries beneath him. Another step, and flower petals twirled, ejecting pollen.  
  
"Morpheus, what's going on?" Bill asked, looking at Morpheus at last.  
  
Morpheus only shrugged.  
  
Bill took another step, and the ground completely began moving under him. He fell on his back, allowing himself to be carried along. He let out a sharp cry before looking down into a hole in the ground, only to find that it was a gap between two Pokémon. He wedged his paws between the cracks and pulled up one of the Pokémon, only to find that it was in fact, a Bellossom. The Bellossom used Flail on him, thrashing out of his paws and falling back into the sea of Bellossom beneath him.  
  
"Morpheus! Where are they taking me!?" Bill demanded frantically as he looked up to the god.  
  
Morpheus only shrugged again.  
  
Bill growled, attempting to stand up. However, one of his hind paws got caught between the Bellossom, causing him to fall forward. He tried to pull his hind paw out, but it was no use. He was stuck.  
  
However, luckily for him, his situation didn't last too much longer. After awhile, the Bellossom moved him off to one side, closer and closer to the edge of the sea of Bellossom. At last, he was dumped over the edge, onto solid grass in a dazed pile, watching the herds of Bellossom pass.  
  
He gasped for breath before checking to see if the ground below him was actual ground. When he was satisfied, he stood and looked over his shoulder, where Morpheus glided. Behind Morpheus was a small town, a patch of brown among green. Bill turned around in awe and took a step forward, rubbing the back of his furry head with a paw.  
  
"Wow," he murmured. "Where did that come from?"  
  
"Where does anything in this world come from?" Morpheus countered. "It was created by you, Bill."  
  
"Is this where the Lotus Temple is?" Bill asked.  
  
Morpheus shrugged. "There's only one way to find out."  
  
"I hate it when you shrug at me like that," Bill commented.  
  
With that, the young researcher-turned-Meowth ran forward, trying to get closer to the town. However, the further he ran, the further away the town seemed to be. It was almost as if he was running in place. He dropped to all fours, trying to get closer, but still, the town stayed away from him.  
  
"Morpheus!" Bill cried as he stopped to catch his breath. "I thought... you said... that everything... here... was a... set place!"  
  
Morpheus grinned. "It is."  
  
Bill paused for a moment and took a gulp of air. "Then why is that town moving!?"  
  
Morpheus raised an eyebrow. "Is it moving... or is it distance that's not a set thing in this world?"  
  
"What on Earth are you talking about?" Bill asked harshly.  
  
"Places have their set locations," Morpheus explained. "However, though they have their set locations in general, how far apart those locations lay and how big the areas are... those things tend to change."  
  
It was Bill's turn to raise an eyebrow. "What the bloody-- that's not possible!"  
  
"What is impossible in reality becomes completely possible in surreality," Morpheus responded simply.  
  
"Surreality?"  
  
"Surrealism," Morpheus rephrased. "The so-called unreal world, though it's completely real as well."  
  
There was a short pause.  
  
"...I don't follow you," Bill said flatly.  
  
Morpheus sighed. "Of course you wouldn't. Your mind is focused too much on the fact to comprehend the unexplainable world."  
  
Bill didn't answer. He did, however, take a step towards the town, only to find himself on the town limits. He blinked.  
  
"Not everything is as it seems, Bill," Morpheus reminded him. "Remember that from now on."  
  
"Right," Bill responded as he threw a cynical look at Morpheus.  
  
The Meowth and the dark god journeyed into the city, looking about at the Old West-style town as the wind blew dust and tumbleweeds about.  
  
"First, I get turned into a Meowth," Bill murmured to himself. "Then, I have to face a doorknob laughing at me. THEN, I fall god knows how far into--"  
  
He stopped short. So did Morpheus. They both heard it. Someone calling Bill's name.  
  
"Ellie," Bill whispered. "My younger sister. I think I can hear Beth, my other sister, as well. But where are they...?"  
  
"Bill, not everything is as it seems," Morpheus warned him again. "They might not even be--"  
  
"Ellie!" Bill called towards the rosy sky as he ran through the town. "Beth! Where are you!?"  
  
"--Here," Morpheus finished with a sigh.  
  
With that, Morpheus was left with no choice but to follow the Meowth, trying to keep up with him.  
  
---  
  
The sister only slightly younger than Bill shook her brother's body but got no response.  
  
"Ellie, get Mum," the older sister said, addressing the younger behind her.  
  
There stood Ellie, still in her night clothes, though her red hair was done up in two braids draping over her shoulders. Her glistening, tea-colored eyes remained fixed on her older sister as she nodded. At last, she ran from the room. The other sister, undoubtedly Beth, turned back to her older brother.  
  
"Come on, Wills, wake up," Beth pleaded, hugging him as she pulled him into the sunlight that fell on the bed. "Come on..."  
  
A dark-haired woman with deep, brown eyes and creases in her middle-aged face burst into the room and gasped. She darted forward and took her son into her arms, trying to shake him and wake him as well. Ellie stood in the doorway, feeling helpless as all this went on.  
  
"William!" the mother cried. "William, please wake up! Oh... This isn't like him! Not at all! He's not a deep sleeper at all! Not this deep! William, please open your eyes!"  
  
There was no response from the young man. Tears fell from the mother, pulled from her eyes as a deep fear settled into her heart.  
  
"Beth, call an ambulance!" the mother demanded.  
  
"Yes, Mum," Beth responded softly as she turned and ran off into the hallway to get to a phone.  
  
The mother cried, thinking the worse as she held her son to her chest in helplessness.  
  
"Oh, William," she murmured. "Please wake up..."  
  
It was unfortunate that he wouldn't wake up. Not for a long while... 


	2. Night Two: Deep in My Heart

Responses from the author:  
  
To everyone at Tanya's RPG Forum (Reborn): Thanks so much for the comments for the TRF version of this fanfic. If it wasn't for your kind words, I wouldn't have edited this and republished it right here on FF.net. Well, actually, maybe I would have, but, er... ^_^;  
  
To DarkCatXX: First off, yay for becoming a member of this dark pit of doom! =D (Yes, I'm REALLY out of the loop, and yes, that was incredibly comforting, wasn't it? XD)  
  
Anywho, yes, I'm back. And even if it's with a blurb of serious insanity (Sometimes, I don't even know where my material comes from. ^_^;), at least I'm posting again. ^_^  
  
---  
  
Night Two: Deep in My Heart...  
  
"Ellie! Beth!"  
  
Bill ran through the streets of the deserted town, looking up at the sky as he frantically tried to find his sisters. Morpheus shook his head and followed.  
  
"Bill!" Morpheus called.  
  
Bill refused to acknowledge the fact that Morpheus addressed him. His mind was set on finding the source of the voices. He was too intent on finding his sisters and getting out of his own dream world. All he wanted was his precious reality, the world where he can count on almost everything to be defined by fact.  
  
When he couldn't find the source of the voices, he stopped to catch his breath. He was in the middle of town, back where he started. Morpheus caught up with him and looked at him sympathetically.  
  
"They weren't real, Bill," he said. "Not in this world. In this world, everything you've experienced in reality is just a faded dream."  
  
"No..." Bill closed his eyes and shook his head. "No! Morpheus, you're the god of dreams, aren't you? Can't you exit a person's dream whenever you wish? Can't you take me back and end my dreaming? Isn't that your power!?"  
  
"Alas, no," Morpheus replied. "I can put my hold on a person's dream and force them to dream for awhile longer, but when I take my hand away, the dream ends. I have no real control over dreams anymore. Especially after I got drunk in the 1960's and caused the Charles Manson fiasco."  
  
Bill winced upon hearing of Morpheus' limitations. "No..."  
  
"I'm sorry, Bill," Morpheus said with a forlorn sigh.  
  
Bill sighed as well and looked around. He noticed something. Something odd indeed.  
  
"Where is everyone?" he asked the god of dreams.  
  
"There's no one here anymore, Bill," Morpheus informed him. "Some places are like this. Empty shells of ideas, abandoned in the vast dream world a mortal creates... Quite common, actually."  
  
Bill looked about himself again, this time in sadness and despair.  
  
"Quite... depressing here... isn't it?" the soul asked the god.  
  
"Mmm. It can be," Morpheus agreed.  
  
"What was here?" Bill questioned.  
  
Morpheus shrugged. "Who knows? Only you."  
  
Not wanting to ponder over that bit, Bill wandered about the abandoned streets, looking at the wooden structures, some with those swinging doors of old, Western saloons, others with regular, wooden front doors, others with no door at all or a door barely hanging on its hinges. Bill stopped before what appeared to be a Victorian house. It seemed out of place, yet not at all. His curiosity got the best of him, and he ventured inside.  
  
He was confronted with dust and cobwebs everywhere, but barely any real furniture. Only a few scattered chairs, covered in white cloths like ghosts or miscellaneous tables here and there of different varieties. Bolder-colored spots on the walls and floors told Bill that there once was a house full of furniture and walls covered with pictures, but many of them seemed to be missing.  
  
He continued on, into what he would think was the parlor. Absolutely nothing remained in this room, save for a lonesome picture hanging on the wall...  
  
...Or, what did up until he took a step into the room. The cord holding the picture snapped, and the picture, frame and all, fell to the wooden floor, clattering against the old, hard wood. Bill cautiously walked forward and picked the frame up, staring at its dusty surface for awhile before rubbing his paw on the pane preserving the photo.  
  
His eyes widened. He recognized the picture. It was... taken on Christmas Day two years before. Yes, he remembered. His parents, his sister, and he were all gathered in front of the Christmas tree. His mother, dressed in a green dress and a smile upon her lovely face, sat in a chair with a wooden frame and red, velvet upholstery. His youngest sister, Ellie, stood in a red dress with a white bow tied in her curly, red hair, smiling at the camera as she gripped the arm of the chair. Bill himself stood in a rather plain suit (for once), with one hand on the edge of the chair, eyes shying away from the camera and looking at Ellie instead. Beth stood next to him, behind the chair in a dress of blue, hair partially clipped back as she smiled warmly at the camera. Finally, the father... The father...  
  
"What's wrong with this picture?" Bill asked.  
  
"What do you mean?" Morpheus inquired, leaning over Bill's shoulder to study it. "Nothing seems to be wrong to me..."  
  
"My father," Bill said softly. "He's supposed to be in this picture. I know it! I've seen this picture so many times before! But..."  
  
He put a paw over the empty corner of the photo.  
  
"He's not there," Bill finished in amazement.  
  
Morpheus stood in thought for a moment.  
  
"Perhaps this is a symbol of how you truly feel about your father," Morpheus suggested.  
  
"...I feel... as if my father was never there?" Bill asked.  
  
Morpheus didn't answer but instead gave Bill a smile.  
  
Bill's eyes trailed back to the photo. It was true, though. His father was always at work or in the Game Corner. Never at home with the family.  
  
Bill remembered, as a boy, wandering about the halls of his home, only to find himself standing outside his parents' bedroom, watching as his mother looked at a photo album while holding back tears. One day, in his inquisitiveness, he snuck into his parents' bedroom and pulled that photo album from under the bed to see what pictures his mother was looking at.  
  
It was their wedding album. His mother constantly looked at the photos taken on the very day she got married, wishing and yearning for those days when her husband loved her above everything else -- above gambling, above Pokémon, above everything save for his own, human children.  
  
From then on, Bill became determined to avoid becoming the man his father had been. Bill vowed to love deeper and work harder for those he cared about, more so than his own father.  
  
At remembering this, Bill threw the photo aside rather violently and turned to leave the house. Morpheus followed, gliding like a spectre not far behind.  
  
As soon as he was outside, Bill stopped. Morpheus did as well. They both heard it. Carnival music.  
  
Bill turned in the direction that the music was coming from and darted that way. He continued to the edge of the town opposite to where he came in. There, he found a cliff, and below the small cliff was... A circus bustling with life.  
  
Tents were scattered at the foot of the cliff, all red and white, all different shapes and sizes. Laughter and pipe organ music was emitted from every square inch of the place, as was the smell of popcorn and peanuts.  
  
Bill looked up at Morpheus with an inquisitive glance, but the god said nothing, only stared down at the commotion below. Without a reason why, the Meowth journeyed down into the circus area, knowing that Morpheus was following.  
  
The two continued through, dodging various Pokémon, some with balloons tied around their paws, some carrying popcorn, some with plush dolls, and some with nothing at all. All, however, were on their hind legs, and all of them were obviously visitors to the circus. Pokémon clowns danced about the grounds, steering clear of an Ursaring or two in pink tutus. Donphan burning in bright, red fire stomped through the grounds unnoticed, lifting their trunks to trumpet a series of long notes as they continued on their way. Bill and Morpheus passed all of this, drawn, strangely enough, to the big top alone.  
  
They entered, apparently just before a show, for the lights dimmed as they sat down in the bleachers. The ring master, a Scizor, appeared and began motioning to different rings with his giant pincers. Then, came the true performers. And no, they weren't Pokémon.  
  
Twenty-some wind up, wooden dolls marched into each ring to mechanically perform their acts. The audience erupted into cheers and laughter as the wooden clowns acted out comedy bits. They watched in awe as wooden trapeze artists flew through the air high above them. They watched in amazement as wooden lion tamers forced blurry versions of Entei to sit, stay, jump through hoops made of water, and roar. And they were highly entertained by the beautiful, wooden women sitting high upon the flaming Donphan without a care in the world nor a scorch on their bodies. At the end of all of this, more clowns came onto the scene.  
  
One clown, however, caught everyone's attention. She was a tall, lanky clown in colorful garb with puffy, purple hair. She stumbled and fell, triggering a wave of laughter throughout the audience except Bill and Morpheus, who watched in silence. However, it didn't end there. The Scizor ringmaster darted forward with a whip and whipped the wooden doll, taking a chip out of her. The crowd, however, got a kick out of this, so the Scizor whipped her again.  
  
Bill watched in horror, wondering how the audience could possibly think this scene was funny. However, he looked around and realized something odd, yet important -- the audience were Swinub people. Each member of the audience had the body of a human being, wrapped in human clothing, but their heads were exactly like Swinub heads. Each audience member oinked as they laughed, taking in the humor like the pigs that they were. They didn't care as the Scizor cracked his whip again, causing one of the doll's arms to fall off.  
  
Bill, who was thoroughly disgusted by this display of crudeness, stood and darted forward before Morpheus could say something to stop him.  
  
"Stop it!" Bill yelled as he got between the Scizor and the doll (who had considerable amounts of wood missing).  
  
The Scizor brought his arm up to whip the doll, but then noticed the Meowth and stopped in surprise. With a free pincer, the Scizor motioned for Bill to get out of the way. Bill responded by shaking his head vigorously.  
  
"I won't let you hurt her!" Bill snapped. "She only made one mistake, and now, you're beating her to death! It isn't right!"  
  
The Scizor shrugged and prepared to whip Bill to get him out of the way. However, as the whip came down, the wooden doll used the arm still attached to her body to push Bill out of the way and take the complete blow. She was split in half. As both pieces fell to the ground, one half looked up at Bill and smiled softly before closing her eye.   
  
Bill stared in disbelief at the doll, unaware that the crowd was booing him. This angered the ringmaster, causing him to snap his whip in front of Bill. He snapped out of his thoughts, mentally coming back to his situation.  
  
"Bill! Run!" Morpheus advised loudly.  
  
With a nod, Bill dropped to all fours and ran as fast as he could out of the tent with everyone pursuing him. Morpheus followed quickly, not looking back at the angry ringmaster, the wooden dolls, the Swinub people, the flaming Donphan... Nothing.   
  
Neither of them made too many thoughts until they crossed into greener land. They noticed the shrieks and hollers from the people at the circus growing fainter and fainter, but they didn't stop until Bill could run no longer. He dropped to his stomach, then pulled himself to his knees and looked behind him to see the shouting Pokémon and dolls at the edge of the circus grounds. They were unable to venture any further, for all of them were tied to the circus and could never leave it. Bill laughed in relief.  
  
However, the thought of the doll's final moments came across his mind, and he fell silent in mourning sadness.  
  
"Whatever is wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.  
  
"Why do I feel any sadness for that wind-up doll back in the circus?" Bill responded. "Why do I care?"  
  
"Why did you ever care about things?" Morpheus answered. "You're a human, which gives you an enormous amount of sensitivity as it is. However, in addition, you're also extraordinarily compassionate, which makes all the difference. I can't answer your question to why you're like this; perhaps that will be a question you'll be able to answer yourself someday..."  
  
Bill looked at Morpheus blankly before turning from the god and leading the way, away from the circus. Morpheus followed without another word.  
  
They journeyed like that for hours, neither of them exchanging any forms of speech. Neither even so much as looking at the other. For hours, they journeyed through the green countryside without a single unusual thing happening. It was like a bit of sanity in Wonderland, and with this, Bill was quite relieved. At least he could concentrate on other questions being brought up in his mind.  
  
At last, after a long period of pondering, he arrived at the bank of a river and stopped to rest. He looked into the blue waters to see Magikarp of just about every color of the rainbow swimming past as well as Barboach that seemed to have trouble keeping their proper shape, morphing into a variety of objects, such as stars or cubes or even umbrellas. Bill had no thirst to quench, so he only remained sitting there, watching the aquatic oddities float by until at last he voiced his question.  
  
"Morpheus?" he addressed.  
  
"Ever-present and listening, Bill," the god responded.  
  
Bill paused for a moment. "Why did you bring me here? I... I know that you wanted me to dream, but the more I think about it, the more that I think that that simple reason isn't the only reason why you forced me into my dream world."  
  
"What makes you think that?" Morpheus asked.  
  
"I don't know," Bill admitted. "It just seems... It just seems that everything I look at in this world seems to trigger a feeling inside of me. Not just the picture we found in the abandoned town, either. I mean, everything. The dolls, the circus, the Bellossom, the door... All of it. Everything I look at seems to cause some strange sensation in my heart..."  
  
"Perhaps it's because everything you see means something to you," Morpheus implied.  
  
Bill looked up at Morpheus, blinked, and shook his head. "I don't understand."  
  
Morpheus sighed. "Everything in your dream world has its own, separate meaning. Each meaning is linked to a different emotion in your heart. So, whenever you look at a certain object in your dream, it means something else. For example..."  
  
Morpheus trailed off, expecting an answer from Bill. However, the youth was busy, replaying a single scene in his mind. Surely, such an image would last in his mind forever. He'd always see that smile etched into his brain, that one moment of pure emotion...  
  
"I felt my heart drop when I saw that doll lashed in two," Bill finally stated. "It was like..." He stared at the endless, rosy-pink sky. "It was like..."  
  
"It was like someone you loved died?" Morpheus proposed.  
  
Bill shook his head. "No... It was like... When I saw that doll, it was as if I found something. Then, when she broke into pieces, it was like... I lost that something all over again."  
  
Bill stood on his hind legs and put one of his forepaws over his heart. He looked straight forward with a saddened gaze. He felt numb as he replayed the scene in his mind once more. He couldn't take his mind off of that look in that doll's eye as both halves fell to the ground under the circus tent.  
  
"What does that mean, Morpheus?" Bill asked.  
  
Morpheus shook his head. "I can't answer that question. Only you can, Bill."  
  
Bill sighed and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, the landscape turned dark. Once more, it was night.  
  
"Time goes by so quickly here," Bill muttered.  
  
"Perhaps it's another symbol," Morpheus hinted. "Yet another thing that has a message it wants to tell you..."  
  
"Hmm."  
  
Bill's eyes rose a bit at the starry sky, trying to figure out what Morpheus meant. Eventually, though, his mind cleared, and all he thought about was trying to figure out what sort of strange constellations he was looking at when he stared at the stars. They certainly didn't look like any pattern he knew...  
  
Just then, wings appeared about the North Star (or what seemed to be the North Star), and the speck of light descended from the tapestry of black and silver to hover around Bill's head. He blinked, realizing that the so-called star was nothing but a black Volbeat emitting an eerie, silver light.  
  
"What a peculiar world," Bill murmured as he followed the insect Pokémon with his eyes.  
  
The firefly hovered about the Meowth's head once more before descending further and flying across the river, low to the water. Bill gazed into the depths of the black, liquid ribbon, only to see the water had turned blood red. Not only that, but within its depths, he found a sight that caused him to pale in horror and jump backwards, landing on his tail and releasing a shuddering gasp from his throat.  
  
"What is it, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.  
  
"Th-there!" Bill exclaimed as he motioned towards the river with an outstretched, shaking paw. "I-I saw something!"  
  
"What?" Morpheus asked as he tilted his head. "What did you see?"  
  
"I saw..."  
  
Bill was unable to answer. He didn't want to describe it. The girl, lying on her back on the bottom of the river. Her long, silky, raven hair floated about her, mainly covering her dead face, and the pure, white dress she wore was torn in several places and painted with blood in several more. Cuts were all over her arms, allowing some bits of skin to flap in the current of the water, revealing torn muscle and bleached bone underneath.  
  
If there had been anything in Bill's stomach, it would have promptly left by then. But since there wasn't (though his brain was still telling him to vomit), all he could do was kneel and gag for awhile until the feeling subsided. Morpheus watched on with the greatest of sympathies in his eyes.  
  
"What... was that!?" Bill asked as he took a few gulps of fresh air.  
  
Morpheus shrugged. "Perhaps just another symbol. Maybe a symbol of a great sense of pain caused by water."  
  
Bill hesitated. Water... He couldn't think of much else except...  
  
He shook his head vigorously and pressed his paw over his chest again. He wanted to toss the thought aside, but it wouldn't leave his mind. There it was, as plain as daylight.  
  
"What are you thinking, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.  
  
Bill shook his head. "Nothing. I'm thinking of nothing."  
  
He stood up and began leading the way. He walked along the river, unwilling to step into the waters for fear that the corpse might be following him somehow, slithering along the riverbed as it waited living flesh for living flesh to pass through the waters so it could snatch it up and pull it under the bitter-cold waters. Bill shuddered.  
  
"Come along, Morpheus," Bill half commanded. "I'd like to find a safe place to rest for the night."  
  
Morpheus nodded and floated along behind his mortal companion.  
  
---  
  
Ellie sat in the hospital room, staring at her older brother, then looking away quickly, at Goldenrod's nighttime scenery through the window. She couldn't stand seeing a person, especially her own flesh and blood, hooked up to monitors and machinery, with tubes and wires and IVs coming out of his mouth and several spots on his skin. The room was in silence. She was alone in the room, save for her brother, and at this, she fidgeted, swinging her legs forwards and backwards, under the chair, then straight out in front of her as she stared at her lap.  
  
"What do you mean 'you don't know'!?"  
  
Ellie looked up, towards the doorway, beyond which her mother was arguing with a doctor.  
  
"There's something terribly wrong with my son, and you can't even figure out what it is!?" the mother shouted.  
  
"Mrs. McKenzie, we're doing all that we can to discover just what might be wrong with your son," the doctor responded softly. "We're running every single test we can think of, and we're examining every single part of his body. However, we haven't found anything yet, but I can assure you, we WILL find out what caused this coma. You just have to be patient!"  
  
Ellie's mother broke down into hysterical sobs.  
  
"I'm sorry, Mrs. McKenzie," the doctor apologized. "We're doing the best we can."  
  
Ellie could hear that her mother's sobs were getting softer. The doctor was leading her away, back into the waiting room. Ellie looked back at her lap and swung her legs forwards and backwards again, thinking of nothing in particular save for a white space of extreme confusion. She didn't look up as she heard footsteps approaching once more.  
  
The door opened, and in walked a male doctor holding a clipboard. The doctor, not noticing Ellie, walked up to the bed and gazed down at the nearly lifeless body lying on it with his blue eyes. He sighed and ran the fingers of his free hand through his straight, brown hair.  
  
"I doubt he'll wake up," the doctor muttered to himself.  
  
Ellie looked up, staring blankly at the doctor as he turned around to see her. The two of them simply gaped at each other in surprise. The awkward silence between them was thick and solid, as if an invisible brick wall had been built between it and both sides had a person who could only ponder how to get around it. 


	3. Night Three: A City With No People

Author's responses:  
  
-To TRF: Thanks again for the kind comments, specifically, to the only reviewer for this chapter, Tanya-san. ^_^  
  
-To DarkCatXX: Yes, it's kinda sad that you're the only reviewer (on FF.net), but at least someone reviewed at all. And that's all that matters. Thanks. ^_^  
  
In any case, yes, it's a bit confusing (Especially the part about the girl in the river; I really don't know where that came from, but I guess I had to throw in a bit about a nightmare SOMEWHERE...), but hopefully, it'll clear up eventually. Er, hopefully. ^_^;  
  
-To the rest of you: I'm surprised, FF.net. Not one of you cares to comment on how odd this all is, nor do any of you wish to make grammatical/storyline reviews or recommendations to a psychiatrist. And of course, no one's guessed the reason why I chose Meowth as the Pokémon Bill turned into. (Yes, there's a reason for that. Cyber cookies go out to whomever can guess what it is. ^_^) I could rant and rave about the originality of something like How Bizarre compared to the hybrid/new trainer fics (which there seem to be a lot of nowadays) and make myself look egotistical, but you'd be bored, and I really don't feel like lashing at the moment. -_-  
  
In any case, here's a new chapter, and here's to hoping that I get SOMETHING in return for it...  
  
Further note: The title came from "A City With No People," the framework story in the manga Chobits, by CLAMP. The idea for the construction of the city, however, came from "invisible ci7ies," a comic at clubph34r.com. I don't actually own either, and they belong to their respectful owners. ^_^;  
  
---  
  
Night Three: A City With No People  
  
Bill sighed. Stopping for the night, as he finally found out right then, was utterly, utterly pointless. He had forgotten that he can't sleep. Not while trapped in his own dreams. After all, he was ALREADY asleep, wasn't he?  
  
He stared up at the stars through the leaves of the great, umbrella-like tree he lay under. The branches spread out above him, shading both him and Morpheus like a giant parasol. He sighed and sat up before looking over one furry shoulder at his godly companion, who slept silently in the grass beside him. Bill never thought that Morpheus, being a god, needed sleep, but then again, it somehow made sense. After all, Morpheus received no mental rest from that dream world. Only Bill did, despite how ironic that fact might be.  
  
"Ugh," Bill moaned as he brought a paw to his head.  
  
He wished nothing more than to have a dreamless sleep, as he had always done up until then. He groaned again as he realized that this wish wouldn't come soon too near in the future.  
  
With another sigh, Bill pushed himself off the ground, onto his hind legs. He walked a little further away until he was out from under the umbrella tree. He glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping Morpheus, wondering if it was indeed a good idea to leave him there. Bill shook his head and turned forward once more, walking aimlessly through his dream world. He only hoped he would be able to find his way back.  
  
He eventually found himself walking north, towards a grassy ledge overlooking a plain of flowers. (Or were those Bellossom?) He glanced over the edge, into what seemed like a grassy eternity miles below. Carefully, he sat himself down on the edge of the earth, gazing with a forlorn look out into nothingness. As the "sun" rose (most unusual, considering he was still facing north), he saw something spread out over the horizon.  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
He leaned forward and shaded his eyes with a paw. He could have sworn he could see a dark-colored city rising up, as if attached to the sun itself.  
  
"What do you see, Bill?" a voice suddenly asked him.  
  
A startled gasp sprang from his throat, and Bill found himself tumbling off the ledge, landing flat on his back on the grass just feet below. He sat up and held his head with a paw as Morpheus floated down to join him.  
  
"I would appreciate it very much if you never did that again," Bill said to Morpheus.  
  
The god chuckled.  
  
"And to answer your question..." Bill stood up and turned towards the north, leading the way towards the city. "I saw something this way. I'm positive it's a city, but in this world... Who knows?"  
  
Morpheus only smiled like the Cheshire Cat, though Bill didn't see this. Instead, the young researcher ambled on, towards the city without much thought. He listened to nothing; the entire world seemed to have a habit of falling silent at the strangest times. Yet, this didn't bother him. It allowed him to have a clear mind to think. Think about what, exactly? Faded things. Things he could barely remember and things he was reminded of when he saw each object.  
  
For example, the wooden doll from the circus had a youthful disposition. If this was true, then could it be that Bill had missed something in his childhood? Lost something that was supposed to mean something to him? He frowned at the thought, for he was unable to answer his own questions. And what was worse, when he thought he had the answer to one question, a thousand more inquiries popped into mind. It was endless, and it plagued his mind like nothing else.  
  
All of a sudden, he felt pavement under his hind paws. He looked up to find himself at the edge of the bleak city that seemed to lack an end. The city had nothing in it but tall skyscrapers, each one made of glass, each one having silver cogs and gears turning just behind the glass. Bill walked through the desolate streets, looking about, as if he was expecting something. He felt Morpheus' presence by his side but didn't look up to confirm the god was there.  
  
"What is this?" Bill asked, half to himself.  
  
"Another fragment of your mind," Morpheus responded. "Just a thought or a long-forgotten dream just waiting to remind you it is still there."  
  
"Where are all the people?" Bill inquired.  
  
"People?"  
  
"Yes..." The Meowth slowly nodded. "Why is it that every place we go to is empty? Where are all the people inhabiting these places? Are they not to be symbols in my mind as well?"  
  
"Perhaps the idea of a lack of people itself is a symbol," Morpheus implied. "What do YOU think it means?"  
  
There was a long pause. Bill couldn't think of an answer right away and so let moments of silent air pass between himself and his companion.  
  
"It means... I am alone," Bill finally responded.  
  
"Are you?" Morpheus asked.  
  
"Sometimes I feel that way," Bill replied quietly with a shrug. "I never felt I could fit into society well. I had only one real friend growing up, and that's caused me to shut people out later on, I suppose."  
  
Bill paused and looked at the rosy sky. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.  
  
"There must not be people here," Bill added, "because there are few people in my life."  
  
Morpheus smiled.  
  
"I see you are beginning to understand," he said. "However, you have far to go before you figure... EVERYTHING... out."  
  
Bill didn't respond to this. Instead, he found himself walking forward, straight towards a random building. He could have sworn that he heard a music box playing, and as he walked closer to the building before him, it grew louder. He stood in front of the building and looked up at the endless wall of glass, higher than he could fathom. After awhile, he dropped his gaze and pushed through the revolving glass door with Morpheus.  
  
Inside, he found nothing. The cogs and gears seemed to have been painted onto the windows, though they still turned rather slowly. The entire room, large and gray, was completely empty, save for a music box made of a dark wood in the very center of the room with a picture and a leather-bound book next to it.  
  
Bill approached the music box and watched as the tiny ballroom dancers inside spun on a glass circle. He knelt down, transfixed by the music box, especially after recognizing the tune. Somewhat involuntarily, he began to sing to the tune very softly, in almost a whisper.  
  
"Far away, long ago  
  
Glowing dim as an ember  
  
Things my heart used to know  
  
Once upon a December..."  
  
He could have sworn he had heard a girl's voice from above sing with him. He brushed aside the thought as he glanced at the other two items in the room.  
  
The first was a picture within a picture frame made of the same wood as the music box. Under the glass pane of the frame was a picture, and certainly, he remembered this one as well. It was of him when he was younger, dressed in the school uniform of one of the academies he had attended. Next to him was the blurred vision of a young girl about his age. He couldn't exactly see her face, but he knew that she was smiling.  
  
Confused about this, Bill turned away from it, picking up the leather-bound book. He opened it to read the text on its yellowing pages, but he found none. Instead, he found pictures of him and that girl, all of which were oddly moving, as if there were instead videos on each page. Bill watched, transfixed, as he glanced at the girl with the straight, light brown hair that came to her chest. On each page, he watched her read, sit by a river, laugh, perform funny little dances for him, and most of all, sleep in his arms. His heart began to ache as he looked at her.  
  
He turned to the last page of the book and found the girl again, this time, in the bleak whiteness of a hospital. She lay on the bed, staring up at him as she held his hand. Her wine-colored eyes set in her round face, clearer than they were on any other page, stared into his for what seemed like eternity. Then, he heard her voice.  
  
"Bill, I don't have much time left," she told him.  
  
He heard his younger voice respond. "No! The doctors... they said they can do something to help you... if you can just hold on. Please, Alice... Hold on!"  
  
She smiled. "Thanks for being a good friend to me, but I just can't..."  
  
"No... Please, Alice," he whispered.  
  
"Sorry I couldn't keep my end of our pact, but that doesn't mean that you don't have to keep yours," she continued. "Can you lean in a bit closer?"  
  
He nodded and leaned forward. She pulled herself up a bit and kissed him on his cheek. He pulled away, tears in his eyes as a hand drifted up to touch the spot she caressed with her lips.  
  
"Alice," he murmured.  
  
She smiled. "Don't worry, Bill. I'll be okay."  
  
With that, she closed her eyes and the picture froze. The present Bill placed a paw on the picture and looked at it with great sadness as his other forepaw drifted up to touch his chest.  
  
"Who was that, Bill?" Morpheus asked.  
  
There was a long pause. Bill didn't answer right away; he was too busy trying to hold back his emotions and to bury his memories again. He shut the book as well as the music box and left them all side by side. He stood up and began to quickly walk back towards the door.  
  
"No one," Bill finally said. "She was no one."  
  
"Is that so?" Morpheus questioned.  
  
Bill didn't reply as he trudged out of the building. All he desired was a few sweet moments without her dark eyes burning into his mind. No, he didn't want to remember her. It took him years to build his life without her; he wasn't going to let good parts of it fall apart because of one glance.  
  
He continued through the city, trying to find the other side. He refused to acknowledge Morpheus' presence, as if gruffly ignoring the god would make the Meowth feel better. At last, he realized he couldn't do such a thing forever and so stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and knelt down in the shadows created by one glass building, bending his head down as he shut his eyes tightly. There was a long period of silence before he finally spoke.  
  
"Why did you bring me here?" Bill sneered.  
  
Morpheus didn't answer. It wasn't that he didn't KNOW the answer; it was just that he chose not to respond. Bill looked up at Morpheus with wide, vexed eyes.  
  
"What's the point of tormenting me like this!?" Bill demanded. "Do you find some sadistic amusement in all of this!?"  
  
"I'm not sure I know what you mean," Morpheus responded. "But perhaps if you calmed down and told me what might be troubling you, then--"  
  
"I'll TELL you what's troubling me!" Bill interrupted in anger as he stood up and clenched his paws into fists. "I was perfectly happy before this whole ordeal, and now...!"  
  
He cut himself off and looked away. He felt somewhat bad about the outburst, and he knew he already said too much.  
  
"I get the feeling that this 'Alice' is more to you than just 'no one,'" Morpheus muttered.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it," Bill said softly.  
  
"Why not?" Morpheus questioned. "Wouldn't that make you feel bet--"  
  
"I don't want to talk about it!" Bill snapped before walking past Morpheus, continuing down the road.  
  
Morpheus only sighed and shook his head.  
  
---  
  
Bill journeyed through the labyrinthine city, unable to find the exit. Often times, he would wind up at the same building he started at, the one with the music box still playing inside. On the other hand, for all he knew, every building had one.  
  
"What sort of place IS this...?" Bill muttered bitterly.  
  
Morpheus didn't answer. That was good; Bill's question was only a rhetorical one.  
  
Bill continued on, listening to the music box's melody play over and over again, slowly driving him insane. He couldn't stand it anymore, but he couldn't escape it. Perhaps that was another sign.  
  
"Alright!" he shouted before collapsing on his knees. "I'll tell you all that you want to know! Just stop playing that wretched music!"  
  
Morpheus looked down at Bill in surprise, but he said not a word.  
  
"Alice," Bill began as he sighed, "was a friend of mine. A good friend. One of the few people I had ever bothered to get close to. She was funny and sweet as well as invisible to society, just like I had been. There. I've said it."  
  
The music continued to play, as if it knew that the Meowth was leaving something out. He covered his cat-like ears and groaned, bending forward in pain, though he refused to say anything more. At last, he snapped again.  
  
"I loved her!" he yelled.  
  
The music ceased. It heard what it wanted to hear. Bill was left, cold and shaking.  
  
"Bill?" Morpheus addressed.  
  
"I loved her," Bill repeated, as soft as a quivering whisper. "It was young love; I'll admit that. And often, she would do something that would irritate me because she was a bit on the clumsy and naïve side... But... I don't know. I shouldn't even think like this."  
  
"Why not?" Morpheus questioned. "Love is love, and all mortals are prone to it. If you fall in love, you shouldn't be afraid to express it, especially if you know it is true. Was it true?"  
  
"I don't know," Bill admitted. "I never got to find out."  
  
"What happened to her?" Morpheus asked.  
  
This simple question from Morpheus caused a period of silence to grow between himself and the young mortal. Bill sighed, reluctant to answer at first. He remained kneeling on the ground, forepaws in front of him and head bent down, allowing him to stare at the ground in sorrow. At last, his lips moved.  
  
"She died."  
  
Morpheus said nothing in response.  
  
Bill rose to his hind paws but kept his head lowered. "The doctors said they couldn't do anything for her. The cancer went undetected for too long, and it spread. Most of her organs couldn't even operate by the time that she died. She was in so much pain, but she never said anything about it."  
  
A smile drew across his lips, small and unsure.  
  
"Before she fell ill... Whenever I returned home for a holiday vacation, we would always go to a river in a park in the heart of Goldenrod," Bill recalled. "We... used to sit out on the grass together and watch the water Pokémon go past, and then... We would talk about whatever came to mind. She would talk about going to the public school in Goldenrod or about whenever she went to live with her father in Violet City for a few days or about odd little things that would always, somehow, make me laugh."  
  
"And how about you? What did you tell her?" Morpheus asked.  
  
Bill looked up at the gray sky. "I told her... about what it was like at the academies I went to or about my family or about..."  
  
He trailed off. There was a period of silence as his gaze fell again and his smile grew a bit wider.  
  
"We made a pact together," he said. "As soon as we both turned nineteen, the both of us would part ways for one year. She would travel to all the places all over the world that she's always wanted to visit, and I would take leave to find myself and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. After that year, we would meet each other again and tell each other all about what we found on our own, separate journeys."  
  
There was a long pause before Bill's smile faded. As he remembered the pact, he turned around sharply to face Morpheus with wide eyes. It was then that things became clear to him.  
  
"You came at exactly 12:01 in the morning on the day of my nineteenth birthday, right?" Bill asked.  
  
Morpheus smiled and nodded.  
  
"And... You took me away... to take leave to find myself, didn't you?" Bill questioned.  
  
This time, Morpheus nodded.  
  
Bill's eyes grew wider as he put it all together. "The pact. You knew about the pact, and you're forcing me to keep my end of it!"  
  
At last, Morpheus said something. "Correct."  
  
"Then..." Bill stepped backwards a bit. "I have to meet her at the end of this year! Does that mean I'm going to die!?"  
  
Morpheus sighed. "Unfortunately, I can't answer that, Bill. That would be something to ask the Fates, not the god of dreams."  
  
"Oh my god!" Bill exclaimed quietly in his fear.  
  
Bill shook his head vigorously at the thought, then realized something.  
  
"It's... only a possibility, right?" he asked Morpheus.  
  
Morpheus looked to the side and up in thought before nodding.  
  
"Yes, only a possibility," the god agreed.  
  
"It may or may not happen..." Bill released a sigh of relief before chuckling. "There's a possibility I'll die in a year, and I'm laughing about it, regardless of how great of a chance that is. I suppose that simply shows how my standards have dropped over time."  
  
Morpheus grinned at the black humor. Neither he nor Bill noticed a shadow lurking around the corner just beyond them, glancing at both the god and the young Meowth.  
  
---  
  
Ellie walked into the house right then. She had stopped by the hospital to visit her brother after school. Well, more like look at him. All she basically did was stand there for a few minutes in silence, watching as her brother struggled to maintain life within his gradually deteriorating body. She remembered looking at his paling face before touching his cold hand. A shiver ran through her body then (and now) as thoughts of death played through her mind. Right then, she took her hand away from his skin and ran out of the room without a word to anyone. And she didn't stop running until she reached home.  
  
She quietly pushed closed the door and took off her shoes right there. She shifted the weight of her backpack slightly before walking slowly through the house. She walked up a flight of stairs and down the hall in silence, passing by her parents' room to get to her own. It was then when she paused and dropped her backpack in the hall, then turned and walked back to the doorway of her parents' room, gazing inside.  
  
There was her mother, sitting on the bed, looking at a photo album as she held back tears.  
  
"Mama?" Ellie finally said.  
  
Her mother looked up with glistening eyes.  
  
"Ellie, I didn't hear you come in," she said quickly as she closed the album and put it aside.  
  
Ellie looked at her mother, then at the album. She recognized the fact that it wasn't the wedding album she had found just days after her brother did all those years ago. With that thought in mind, she glanced back up at her mother's face.  
  
"Mama, why are you crying?" Ellie asked.  
  
There was a long pause before her mother held out both arms.  
  
"Come here," she responded.  
  
Without any further questioning, the little girl walked forward and into her mother's arms. The mother picked her child up and placed little Ellie on her lap as she wrapped her arms around the child in a protective embrace, as if the moment she let go of her daughter, Ellie would be snatched away from her by an unseen force.  
  
Thousands of things ran through the mother's mind right then, all of which she wished to at last spill into the open. She wished to talk about how much she wanted her husband to be with the family and her son to be well. She wished to talk about how stressful her job as a dance instructor actually was. She wished she could say exactly how she felt about everything. But most of all, she wanted to tell Ellie that the doctor had called and said that her son and Ellie's brother might never open his eyes again.  
  
But she held all this back. No, she didn't want to tell anyone, especially the eight-year-old sitting in her lap. No, she'll keep it to herself and hope that if she just fought and struggled like life dictated that all humans would do, then things would get better someday.  
  
With that, the mother held her little girl in her arms and burst out crying.  
  
---  
  
Final A/N: And thus, I kick myself for both bringing up another tragic, young death (Ack! I thought I had enough of those with Tess's death in Warp Series! _) and for taking Bill out of character once... twice... multiple times... O_o; Then again, I can get away with the latter because it's not like any of you actually KNOW Bill's character to begin with... unless you've actually read my ramblings on my fanshrine to the guy. XD; That said, until next... time... ^_^; 


	4. Night Four: Sweet Nightmares

Foreword: This fic is hereby dedicated to Meowthgal. Yes, that's an unusual statement, but I had to do SOMETHING for her. ^_^;  
  
Also, I actually got Cat Soup recently, so be prepared for some trippiness, especially from page six and beyond. ^_^;  
  
Author's responses:  
  
-To Tanya: Thanks for your kind comments. I'm glad to hear that it doesn't matter that I took poor Bill somewhat off character. ^_^;  
  
-To DarkCatXX: I've been meaning to review your stories, but I never got around to it. And that's extremely rude. O_o; *goes off to do so*  
  
As for the motivation, yes, lags like that tend to happen now and then, but I'm sure you'll get over it. ^_^ (And as for yours truly... *looks at all her unfinished stories* Hoo boy... ^_^;)  
  
And as for your questions about the storyline, perhaps the river will mean something eventually. (Originally, it was just a random idea that popped into mind... Then again, so was the pact, and that wound up being some sort of a coincidence. ^_^;) And yes, you'll hear more about Alice (and get a better description of her) later on, but how exactly... Well, I don't want to spoil it for you. ^_^;  
  
-To the rest of you: Nah. I'm not THAT disappointed that I've got only two reviewers. I'm just disappointed in the fact that there's been an unhealthy amount of cookie-cutter stories on FF.net lately. It's as if people are really lacking creativity to come up with a concept other than new trainers starting off at (insert town name here) with (insert Pokémon here) that just happens to be (insert oddity here). Either that or something other than some kid who just happened to be (captured by any of the three existing Teams, most likely Rocket/worked for any of the three existing teams, most likely Rocket/in a situation in which he or she meets a legendary Pokémon) and wound up (being experimented on/falling under a spell or curse), which turned them into a(n) (insert Pokémon here) hybrid. (And don't even get me started on the romance stuff or the "chosen one" fics.) And people absolutely love these concepts, no matter how many times they're repeated. O.o;  
  
Now, I don't mean to rant and offend and whatnot, but as I've said in a chatroom: "There's only so much you can do with a concept before it can become boring." After all, we're all supposed to be creative little suckers. Can't we come up with our own ideas? =/  
  
I guess that's another purpose of How Bizarre. To break away from the fill-in-the-blank, predictable stories appearing somewhat often as of late and to prove to the world that you can:  
  
A. Write a Pokémon story without mentioning legendary Pokémon. At all.  
  
B. Write a Pokémon story without any hints of Mary Sues/Gary Stus. (Alice is not a Mary Sue. I'll explain why once the time is right.)  
  
C. Get away with writing a story completely unpredictable and so far from the norm that it seems like a fresh concept... and make it look good.  
  
Well, that said, this is almost a page long, so let's get into the story, shall we? ^_^;  
  
---  
  
Night Four: Sweet Nightmares  
  
Bill led the way through the city. He didn't know where he was going (When did he ever in his dream world?), but he hoped that eventually, he'd wind up outside of the city and one step closer to the Lotus Temple. His eyes were glued on the ground; he didn't notice as the sky became multi-colored and distorted, as if wet paint of all sorts of dark colors had been poured into one can before being swirled, creating not a new color but instead waves and swirls of separate hues.  
  
He didn't notice as the setting shifted from giant skyscrapers boasting windows with paint-on cogs to buildings with dreary, gray, brick walls, a part of the city that seemed very urban. It had signs and graffiti all over the walls of its structures, though there were no hands to put them up or to vandalize at all, nor was the writing at all legible to Bill's eyes. They all seemed to be in a foreign writing -- possibly Arabic... or just scribbles. Bill only gave them a glance and didn't bother to stop and decipher them.  
  
"Something wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.  
  
"Quite dreary here, isn't...?" Bill stopped short as he looked up at the sky. "How peculiar."  
  
"Hmm. Indeed," Morpheus replied with a bored tone. "Is that all you're troubled with?"  
  
"Not exactly," Bill answered.  
  
"Then Alice...?"  
  
Bill shook his head. "Though I've been thinking about her since yesterday, that's not what's on my mind."  
  
Morpheus floated down, bowing his head close to the head of his companion. "Then what is?"  
  
Bill frowned. "Do you have the feeling that we're being watched?"  
  
---  
  
A shadow curled out from around the corner of a building. Amongst the blackish-purple fog, a pair of green eyes opened, narrow and slanted. A claw-like hand pushed out from within the dark cloud and curled around the corner of the brick building, pulling the form closer to the open, allowing it to see the backs of a Meowth and a golden-horned being just a few feet away.  
  
"Do you have the feeling that we're being watched?" the Meowth asked.  
  
A line was drawn in the cloud before curving up into a twisted smile.  
  
"Come," the thing said in a raspy voice.  
  
Three shadows grew from him along the ground before rising up onto the wall of the building on the other side of the alley. A pair of red eyes, one of blue, and the last of yellow each opened like those of the thing the shadows came from.  
  
"Ornithophobia," the red-eyed shadow announced in a feminine voice.  
  
"Enochlophobia," the red-eyed's blue-eyed sister added.  
  
"Agoraphobia," the yellow-eyed sister finished.  
  
"We are the three urchins that plague this dream world. We are the children of chaos. The spawn of nightmares. The things that terrorize our dreamer into fearing his own haven," all three recited in unison. "We are the Three Sisters. Here to serve the king of darkness, Nightmare."  
  
The misty shadow chuckled. "Ah, my three most loyal servants. I trust you know what I have observed, do you not?"  
  
"Strange things have been happening in this dream world lately," Ornithophobia stated.  
  
"Much more peculiar than usual," Enochlophobia inputted.  
  
"They say the dreamer is lost," Agoraphobia said.  
  
Ornithophobia's ruby eyes narrowed. "Lost among his own dreams..."  
  
Enochlophobia's sapphire eyes followed. "They say the keeper of the Lotus Temple is in wait for him."  
  
Agoraphobia's eyes closed completely. "But he is too busy finding something he lost in his own Wonderland."  
  
Nightmare grinned. "So you HAVE all been paying attention. What does this mean for us?"  
  
"The dreamer's body is free for our taking," the Three Sisters responded in unison. "While the dreamer is wandering about his own mind, we can wake up his body by taking his place in his mind, and with this, he will be sealed within himself... forever."  
  
"Very good," Nightmare complimented. "Now, how ever will we delay the dreamer from getting to the Lotus Temple before one of us does?"  
  
"We will volunteer to slow him by tormenting him with his own fears," Ornithophobia responded. "But first, we must know where the dreamer is."  
  
Nightmare's grin grew wider. "Split up and search every corner of the land. However... Start with the strange couple wandering about our city. It's most unusual to have someone aside from us meander within our sanctuary..."  
  
Ornithophobia pulled away from the wall, revealing herself to be a harpy with black claws, a gray, demonic face, and a body covered with ebony feathers.  
  
"Sisters, go on your search. I will take care of the intruders," Ornithophobia announced as she took flight and transformed into a full, gigantic raven.  
  
"Oh, she's always the one who gets to have fun first," Agoraphobia complained with a sigh.  
  
"Be patient, Sister," Enochlophobia responded. "We will have our chance as well."  
  
With that, she and her sister rose up the brick building quickly, shooting into the air as two black blurs. Nightmare watched them with his emerald eyes before grinning once more and disappearing back into the non-living shadows...  
  
---  
  
A chill ran down Bill's spine. Something wasn't right. He sensed it. Something chilled his skin, and a cold, heavy feeling settled in his stomach. Fear. He stopped in his tracks as his head tilted skyward and his eyes widened.  
  
"What's wrong, Bill?" Morpheus inquired.  
  
"I could have sworn I felt something," Bill replied, rubbing his arms.  
  
Morpheus closed his eyes. "Another sign."  
  
Bill looked over his shoulder at Morpheus. "A sign of what, exactly?"  
  
Morpheus didn't answer. He only opened his eyes slightly, staring at Bill as if the Meowth and only the Meowth knew the answer. Bill turned around and raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what Morpheus was thinking.  
  
All of a sudden, he felt someone passing behind him rather quickly. He froze, then looked back over his shoulder, shuddering in anxiety.  
  
"What... What was that?" Bill asked softly.  
  
"Are you afraid of the dark?" a voice hissed at him from seemingly nowhere.  
  
Bill turned around and took a step backwards. "Morpheus... What is that...?"  
  
"Are you afraid of the dark?" it repeated. "Are you...?"  
  
Bill closed his eyes, got a grip on himself, and shook his head. "No!"  
  
"You're lying," the voice sneered. "I know. I know everything about you, especially your fears. You can't hide from me."  
  
Shadows grew from every dark patch in the area and merged together to form a dark being with blood red eyes. She narrowed them at Bill, studying him carefully.  
  
"Are you the one who dreams? Who searches for something he yearns?" she asked.  
  
Bill could only nod, unaware of the consequences that simple action could bring.  
  
"You... are Bill?"  
  
Again, he nodded.  
  
A pair of wings burst from the darkness, throwing a rain of ebony feathers at Morpheus and Bill. Bill shielded his face, as if the feathers were blades until at last, he moved his arm to see the demon before him. The harpy who gazed at him with vicious, ruby eyes.  
  
"With every dream comes a nightmare," she told him. "You think you are away from harm when you dream... Think again!"  
  
She pointed to Bill's arm with a talon. He looked down and found that wherever a feather struck his flesh, there was a red line from which blood dripped. He felt nothing, though.  
  
"What is this?" Bill questioned with eyes wide as saucers.  
  
"Does it matter?" the harpy responded. "I am one of the four siblings who can make your every nightmare come true. I am Ornithophobia, mistress of birds. And to demonstrate my power..."  
  
She spread her wings and threw her head back, sending a storm of feathers into the sky. Each feather flattened and reshaped itself into a black square before folding several times to form a black paper crane. Entire flocks of them darkened the sky, obscuring the colors as they flew like a single body, a single river of paper terror that rooted Bill to his spot on the ground.  
  
"Bill, I suggest you run!" Morpheus shouted as he watched the river flow towards the mortal.  
  
Bill remained frozen for a few moments before diving out of the way, sprawling out on the sidewalk a few feet away. He had narrowly missed them all as they plunged into the ground, forming a dark hole in the cement as they burrowed further and further into the ground.  
  
Only when the last crane disappeared below did Bill shakily get up. He looked at Ornithophobia and froze once more in pure fright. He feared birds as it was, but the form Ornithophobia took caused his blood to run as cold as ice.  
  
She chose, of all things, a Fearow. The memory still haunted him. The images of the cloudy afternoon when a Fearow had swooped in and attacked him simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had suppressed the memory for so long that it only seemed like a faded nightmare whose end he couldn't remember. It only seemed like a trick of the mind.  
  
He backed away, scared beyond words.  
  
"No," he managed to whisper.  
  
Then, there was a rumbling below. Morpheus looked down and watched the spot of cement Bill was fixed to. It cracked, though the human soul didn't notice. Then, all at once, the river of ebony burst from the ground below him, throwing him into the air and slamming him down into the cement again before flying into the air to wait for him.  
  
Morpheus stared at the limp Meowth. "Bill?"  
  
Bill didn't stir. His body was covered in red lines, and his face was buried in his forepaws.  
  
"Such a shame to see you go down so easily," Ornithophobia muttered as she took flight, prepared to strike Bill herself.  
  
"Bill, don't you realize that these dreams are just that -- only dreams?" Morpheus inquired harshly. "Though I have no control over what goes on in a mortal's dreams anymore, YOU have that power. You are the god of your OWN dreams, Bill. Figure things out from there."  
  
Ornithophobia struck Bill with a Fury Attack, sending the Meowth bouncing about the pavement before he wound up face-down on the cement again. He looked up at Morpheus, who only remained floating there, watching.  
  
"Only dreams," Bill murmured.  
  
A shrill cry escaped Ornithophobia's throat as she swooped in again for a Drill Peck, the last attack the real Fearow used on Bill so many years ago. However, just at the last moment, Bill pulled himself out of the way, leaving Ornithophobia to drill into the cement.  
  
"You were wrong!" Bill snapped as he stood up without a cut on his body. "I CAN'T be hurt here! These are my dreams, and I can do as I wish here!"  
  
Bill ejected his claws and held them up to Ornithophobia.  
  
"I may still be ornithophobic outside of this world; I can't tell right now," he stated. "However, in this world, you can't touch me!"  
  
Ornithophobia transformed back into a harpy and lifted her head.  
  
"We'll see about that," she said with a smirk.  
  
Just then, the river of paper cranes dove onto Bill. He quickly began slashing away at them with his claws, desperately trying to get them off of him. However, it seemed as if he was drowning in a sea of them; whenever he shredded one, five more replaced it. He resorted to biting a few as he rest of him thrashed about in a slashing frenzy.  
  
At last, when the last crane was ripped off of him, he realized something. Ornithophobia was gone.  
  
"Morpheus! Where did she go!?" Bill demanded in anger.  
  
"Patience, Bill," Morpheus responded. "You will defeat her when the time comes. However, it is not time. Not yet. I suggest we move on."  
  
Bill nodded and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm himself after all that excitement. When he was at last ready, he began leading the way, into the vast unknown.  
  
---  
  
The blue-colored sun was setting in the northern horizon once more as Bill found himself walking out of the city. He breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be away from the crowded urban streets.  
  
The landscape before him was bleak. The sky above was a shade of gray, and the sands he stood on were a pale red. The dark waves rolled onto the beach regularly, making a noise almost like a stadium full of people hissing at the sky. It all seemed eternal, the struggle between land, water, and sky to occupy the same existence equally.  
  
"What is this?" Bill inquired.  
  
He looked over his shoulder to see Morpheus only shrug.  
  
"What is it to you?" Morpheus responded. "Could it be that, like the ocean, there is a part of you ever-changing?"  
  
Bill considered this as he looked out to sea again. The intensity and depth of it all was indescribable by words.  
  
"It's that way," Bill finally muttered.  
  
"Hmm?" Morpheus inquired.  
  
Bill pointed to the horizon over the sea with a paw. "The Lotus Temple. It's that way."  
  
"Alright then."  
  
Bill looked at Morpheus again. "How will we get there? I can't swim an ocean, especially in the body of a Meowth, and I have a feeling that you won't be carrying me there."  
  
"We will get there by boat, of course," Morpheus announced as a gray hand slid from his black robes and pointed forward, at something further down the beach.  
  
Bill ran towards it, kicking up red sand as he did for he had yet to get used to running on sand with Meowth paws. At last, in the moonlight of a green moon, he arrived at the thing. It was a boat of glass, crystal clear and cold as ice, with small structure like a wooden shed in the middle to shelter its occupants. Bill studied the boat with a look of skepticism.  
  
"But will it float?" Bill asked to no one in particular.  
  
"There is only one way to find out," Morpheus responded. "Get in. I will push the boat far enough into the water so that it will float towards our destination."  
  
With a slow nod, Bill jumped up and grabbed the edge of the boat, pulling himself up and over it and into the boat itself. Morpheus glided behind the boat and began pushing it off the sand, further and further into the water until it was deeper than he was tall. Morpheus then swung himself into the boat and sat down on where he landed.  
  
Bill had nothing to say from then on. He retreated into the wooden shed and watched the ocean scene below through the glass floor. The waters were highlighted with a green tint, and he could see perfectly, all the way to the sandy bottom, which seemed to be miles upon miles below. He watched as schools of black Goldeen swam peacefully by and as Tentacool giving off sparks of light danced in erratic patterns about the ocean floor. He kept watching until a Gyarados made of a blue liquid swooped in and swallowed several Goldeen and a Tentacool, then swam closer to the surface of the water, allowing Bill to see clearly as the Pokémon within it disintegrated. He shifted uncomfortably before lying on his back, staring up at the shed's darkness.  
  
With a shudder, he closed his eyes.  
  
---  
  
He opened his eyes once more to the sound of tapping on the roof. He raised an eyebrow and turned over carefully to see drops of color float to the bottom as the boat went past. Curious, he looked out of the opening to the shed to find colored rain fall from a lit-up, purple sky. He briefly wondered if he had fallen asleep but tossed that idea aside, figuring that time was just as unpredictable as distance.  
  
He and Morpheus watched the drops fall into the ocean without a word to the other. Morpheus was as still as a statue, but Bill held out a paw, catching a large, orange raindrop in the middle of it. He brought it to his face and examined it carefully until it gave off a bright light and turned into a small, orange faerie. The faerie giggled touched his nose (or the spot where his nose would be) and flew into the sky to fall back down as a raindrop again.  
  
"How unusual," Bill finally muttered.  
  
Morpheus chuckled. "Indeed."  
  
---  
  
Ellie lay awake in her bedroom as the hour hand moved to eleven o' clock. Several months had passed since her brother fell into that coma (though no one knew they were days in his mind), and things were STILL not improving. She knew because she visited him that day, just like she had every other day and just like she had promised to him she would every day.  
  
"No! You can't!" her mother cried on the other side of the wall, in the master bedroom.  
  
Ellie didn't turn her head. Instead, her eyes moved so that she could see the wall from the corners of her eyes without having to otherwise move.  
  
"He's already half dead, Rose!" Ellie's father yelled. "There's no hope for him! Even the doctors said it!"  
  
"We can't give up hope on William!" Rose protested. "He'll wake up soon!"  
  
"He's not responding to any of their treatments," the father pointed out. "It's a waste of time and money. Our son is probably suffering right now; the best thing to do is to put him out of his misery."  
  
"Stop talking about him as if he's a dog!" Rose boomed. "William is our son -- our ONLY son! We can't have him put to sleep like a stray animal in a pound! We have to keep him alive until the day when--"  
  
"When he wakes up?" the father finished. "Rose, William WON'T wake up. He is as good as dead. We have two daughters, and he kept his distance from us; it won't be so bad if he dies. Now, listen. I'll call up the hospital, and--"  
  
"NO!" Rose sobbed. "I won't let you! William will wake up soon! You can't let him die!"  
  
Her husband growled. "Rose!"  
  
Ellie heard her mother burst into tears. It was only then when she turned her head to look at the wall.  
  
"Everything will be fine," the father said. "He probably wants us to do this..."  
  
Rose sobbed as Ellie's head turned again to look at the ceiling.  
  
There was a moment's pause before the little girl got out of bed. She picked up her backpack and emptied it before going about her room, collecting clothing, odds and ends, and a piggybank, placing everything in her backpack. When everything was packed, she opened the window and slid outside before running towards the street and away from the house.  
  
"Don't worry, Big Brother," Ellie murmured. "I'll help keep you alive for a little while longer while Mommy and Daddy look for me. Maybe you'll wake up while I'm gone..." 


	5. Night Five: An Ocean Too Deep

Author's responses:  
  
-To Melchior the Mewthree: Thank you for the compliments. Yes, as I've said before, it was my intention to create something strange, original, and non-cliché-ish for the people who feel the same way I do about stories and for the people who don't (just to show them that it's possible to create something strange, original, et cetera). Thank you for telling me that my work thus far is not in vain, and I'll try my best to keep up what I'm doing right now. ^_^  
  
-To Tanya: Thanks again for the kind words. ^_^  
  
-To DarkCatXX: You're welcome for everything. ^_^ (Ah, yes. Literal vacation. The fanfiction author's nightmare. Well, it is if you're me. Go on a trip and come back without a clue that you're supposed to write another chapter. ^_^;)  
  
Anywho, thanks for the compliments on the latest chapter. I hadn't realized that it bore resemblance to Soul Caliber 2... Mainly because I hadn't played it before. Maybe I should. ^_^; (It's still cool that someone got a reference to something I hadn't even intended on referring to. =D)  
  
As for the time thing, there's a rather simple explanation (Well, it seemed simple at the time...), and it would be this: In dreams, people really don't have a sense of time, so Bill's not aware that a long period of time had passed while he's "asleep." Besides, time is a thing defined by reality, and since Bill isn't IN reality at the moment, time has no definition. (Or something like that. I'm hoping someone out there gets what I'm trying to say. ^_^;)  
  
Further note: A lot of the following chapter had been inspired by the last scenes of Alien Nine (Poor Kumi... ;_;) as well as the show's ending theme. (Yes, I got Alien Nine on DVD recently. Go and get it! It's good! =D) If anyone can find out where I can download a copy or where I could at least find the artist/title of the song, I'd glomp the freakin' stuffing out of you. ^_^;  
  
And hey! I got this done in time for Christmas! Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone! =D  
  
---  
  
Night Five: An Ocean Too Deep  
  
It only felt like a short time to him, but already, Bill felt as if his life in the real world was a dream. He was getting too used to seeing such an unusual landscape all around him, and he was getting too used to being a Meowth. It almost made life as a human seem absurd.  
  
He leaned against the edge of the glass boat, staring forward as the boat gently moved with the waves, taking both of its occupants further and further into the unknown. Bill reached down and touched the waters with his paw as the boat climbed over a wave. It felt cool and silky, like water usually would. Was he supposed to feel it? Is that possible?  
  
He brought his wet paw up, studying it in curiosity. Could he feel water? How is it possible that, in a world of dreams, everything seemed so real? How could he be able to feel everything except pain? Do people usually feel that in their dreams?  
  
He closed his eyes and tried to recall another dream of his, one where he felt as if everything was real. However, nothing came to mind. His mind was as dark and bleak as the sky under which he rode.  
  
Suddenly, something hit him in the face, then bounced over his head and landed onto the glass with a cross between a thud and a tink. Bill opened his eyes and turned around to see a silver fish (not a Magikarp, not a Goldeen, not a Feebas -- just not a Pokémon) flop around wildly on the glass bottom of the boat. Another fish, a blue one, smacked Bill in the back of the head and landed on top of the silver fish. Bill ducked as several more fish jumped into the boat and struggled to find their way back out. Some did, but most wound up lying listless on the boat's bottom, pumping their gills until they drowned in open air.  
  
Bill stared at the pile of fish between himself and the shed, somewhat shocked that this had happened.  
  
"What will we do with them?" Morpheus inquired from the shed.  
  
Bill made his way around the pile. "I suppose we'll use them as food."  
  
Morpheus looked at Bill from where he sat under the shed roof as he tilted his head.  
  
"You can't eat in your current state," the god pointed out. "Neither can I, for that matter."  
  
"Good point," Bill muttered as he looked back at the pile.  
  
Just then, he saw an orange fish standing up on its tail fin. Its head was bent forward like a human head, rather than being pointed at the sky. (Why this was so is a complete mystery. Perhaps the fish just wanted to look at something other than the sky.) It looked first at the pile of fish from which it came, then around the boat, looking for something. Using its tail fin as a pair of feet, the fish wandered about the boat, wondering what was going on. Bill only stood by, intrigued by the fish and secretly hoping it would jump off the boat and swim away.  
  
At last, the fish found what it was looking for and touched the edge of the boat with a fin. With a happy squeak, it jumped into the air and nearly touched the water...  
  
...Just as a hand came bursting out of the dark depths and used the knife it held to skewer the fish. As the fish flailed about, struggling to escape its fate, more hands with knives erupted from the water, and, to Bill's horror, quickly cut up the fish into slices. Each slice fell onto the surface of the water and floated there before the hands all dropped their knives and collected each piece, placing them on a silver plate held by the hand whose knife skewered the fish. When not a single piece of the fish was left to float on the water, the hands sank into the waters, taking the plate of sliced fish with them.  
  
It was then that Bill began to feel sick. With a pale face, he went to lean over the side of the boat where he vomited, violently expelling all contents (which he didn't know he had) within his stomach. When he was finished, he limply fell backwards into the boat, onto his back, nauseous with the scene that just took place as well as with the vile smell of slowly rotting fish. It was then when he wished he had the strength to throw them all overboard.  
  
---  
  
Bill was slumped in the shelter of the shack with a paw on his stomach. He had just shoved every fish overboard with the last of his strength before stumbling into the shade, trying not to look at the carpet of rainbow colors floating about the boat.  
  
"Are you alright, Bill?" Morpheus asked with pure concern in his voice.  
  
Bill sucked in a large amount of salty air and let it out slowly in an effort to calm his stomach. He curled up on his side and kept inhaling and exhaling deeply for a long while, keeping him from answering Morpheus right away.  
  
At last, he weakly replied, "Yes. Of course."  
  
"Are you sure?" Morpheus asked with caution.  
  
Bill nodded feebly. "Yes."  
  
Morpheus floated down a bit and placed a hand on Bill. "Is there something I can do to help you?"  
  
Help. At that simple word, Bill shrugged Morpheus' hand off and struggled to stand up.  
  
"I don't need help," Bill snapped. "I don't need anyone's help!"  
  
Suddenly, the sky darkened to an almost pitch-black color as the boat began to pitch and as drops violently slammed into the roof of the small shelter in the middle of the boat. The pixies that formed those tiny bits of water screamed upon impact before landing into the water of the ocean, ejecting a dark liquid which was most likely like blood. Morpheus hovered in midair, watching as the Meowth slid back and forth across the glass bottom of the boat while the ocean and winds around them became angry and violent. At last, the waters sharply heaved upwards, tilting the boat back and causing the feline to slide backwards and over the edge of the glass boat.  
  
Bill didn't know how to swim in his Meowth form. All he knew how to do was tire himself out by splashing around, trying to keep his head above water. Soon, he became exhausted, and, as he felt the last of his strength leave his tiny body, he closed his eyes and allowed the dark waters around him to swallow him.  
  
---  
  
"Ngh...! Hmm? Am I... dead?"  
  
Bill opened his eyes to find himself in a dark hallway lit by fluorescent lights. Sounds of footsteps on the linoleum floor echoed off of the quiet walls.  
  
"No... Not this place," Bill murmured to himself.  
  
He realized that the footsteps were coming towards him, and, in an effort to hide, he scooted out of sight, through the opened door to a nearby room. Just as he did, he saw a nurse walk past, holding the hand of a familiar young boy dressed in a white, short-sleeved shirt and white pants. That boy was himself, ten years before. Curious, he followed, though he could have sworn that something seemed familiar about this.  
  
There was complete silence until the brown-haired nurse walked the boy into a room much like a regular office with shelves of books about psychology along the walls. A large, mahogany desk covered with papers was placed straight ahead, and behind it was a brown, leather chair, turned around backwards as well as a window covered with blinds behind the chair. The Meowth slinked in behind the nurse and the boy before tucking himself in a corner of the room, behind a potted plant.  
  
"Dr. Dogwood, I brought the three o' clock," the nurse stated.  
  
"Good," a voice said from the chair. "Go outside and wait. When I'm done, I'll give him back to you."  
  
The nurse nodded and walked out of the office, closing the door carefully behind her.  
  
"Have a seat, William," the doctor said.  
  
The boy nervously sat in one of the two black chairs in front of the desk. The large chair behind it swiveled around, allowing the boy to see the plump, balding man behind it. He looked very much like a Santa Claus without facial hair and with a doctor's coat on.  
  
"So, the nurses have told me that we've finally gotten a breakthrough with you," Dogwood said enthusiastically. "You've only been here at Sheridan Hill for three months, and at last, you've finally said something."  
  
Bill shuddered. Yes, it was the place he dreaded. Sheridan Hill. It was an asylum for children. He remembered it quite clearly then; after Alice's death, Bill gave up on life. For the first few weeks, he simply didn't care about school. Then, after awhile, he wouldn't sleep, and he stopped eating. He wouldn't even speak to anyone or express any emotion; he only stared off into space with a forlorn look. After about a week of this, his parents realized the danger he was putting himself into and so sent him to Sheridan Hill to try to "fix" him.  
  
"Would you like to tell me about it, William?" Dogwood asked. "What's been on your mind lately?"  
  
The boy groaned and shrank back into the chair.  
  
"There's no reason to be shy!" Dogwood smiled. "I know how it feels to lose a loved one--"  
  
"It... wasn't just that."  
  
Dogwood tilted his perky head. "Come again?"  
  
The boy ignored Dogwood's question. "I think I'm better now. Can I go home?"  
  
Dogwood sighed. "Perhaps you can, William. But first, we need to discuss things."  
  
"What's there to discuss?" For the first time in a long time, the boy's face broke into a smile. "I'm happy now! I've dealt with everything, and there's nothing wrong anymore!"  
  
Bill closed his eyes. When he opened them, he found himself in complete darkness. All alone.  
  
"That was a lie," he said to himself. "There was something wrong. But what was it...? It wasn't just Alice, but I can't remember what else troubled me then..."  
  
In the darkness, he heard voices. He could make out the outlines of people, crowding around his boyhood form. He recognized it to be some sort of rendition of the interviews he had often got as a child and a prodigy and a son of another Pokémon researcher.  
  
"Mr. McKenzie, you've just become the youngest student ever at Celadon University," one of the reporters stated. "Tell us, what did your parents do to help you? What's the secret to your success?"  
  
The boy hesitated before smiling broadly. "I love what I do! I love it!"  
  
Bill frowned. Another lie. He closed his eyes and reopened them, only to find everything gone. Why? What was the reason behind these images?  
  
"Father, do I please you?"  
  
Bill looked up sharply upon hearing the voice of his younger self. He saw himself, years before, looking up to a portly, red-headed man in a lab coat. The man stared at the boy with deep, brown eyes for a long while.  
  
"What was that?" the man asked gruffly.  
  
The boy gave an expectant smile. "I said, 'Father, do I please you?'."  
  
"I heard what you said!" His father frowned. "It's not good enough. You need to try harder."  
  
Tears sprung up in the Meowth's eyes as he clenched his paws.  
  
"NOTHING is EVER good enough for you!" he screamed at the image. "I've tried my hardest in everything, but never have I heard you say that I what I was doing pleased you! I did everything I could, but I couldn't be perfect! You didn't care for anything less than flawless!"  
  
With that, he dropped to his knees and allowed his tears to flow freely.  
  
"I stopped striving for your approval a long time ago," he murmured, partially to himself. "But it still hurts. It still hurts..."  
  
Bill wiped away the tears from his eyes.  
  
"THAT'S what this is all about, isn't it!? All these images are appearing to show me why I hate my father, aren't they!?"  
  
Suddenly, light flooded the area. Bill opened his eyes fully to find himself in a grassy field under the glow of a full moon. He knew this area; it was framed by woods, decorated by flowers, and fringed on one side by a cliff that dropped into the sea. He knew the cliff especially well.  
  
As if on cue, he saw a boy -- him, only eight years younger -- sitting a few feet away in the grass. The boy's eyes glittered with tears as both recalled the phone call made just a few hours before.  
  
"Father, I earned another badge. Did what I do please you?"  
  
The boy showed the badge to his father through the videophone in the Pokémon Center a few hours ago. There was a long pause.  
  
"Father?"  
  
The boy opened his joyful eyes, only to see his father frown.  
  
"Just because you have two badges doesn't mean you have any skill," his father replied harshly. "The other children who left at the same time you did from the same exact starting point all have four badges and twenty Pokémon in storage. How many have you gotten, William? Not enough to have ONE sent here, that's for sure! You need to work harder, and don't get cocky! Don't call back until you've improved."  
  
With that, the boy's father hung up, leaving the boy there to stare at the screen in shock. He didn't move, save for the loosening of his fingers just enough to drop the receiver.  
  
Presently, the boy clenched his fists, holding back his tears.  
  
"Nothing I ever do is good enough for him!" he shouted.  
  
He stopped, then allowed his face to fall into one of extreme sadness. A decision had just been made. He took the PokéBalls from his belt, only four, and tossed each of them out into the meadow behind him. There appeared his team: Eevee, his favorite, Vulpix, his bravest, Abra, his most mischievous, and Ivysaur, his first and most loyal. He stared at them for a long while with a blank expression.  
  
"I... I'm letting you all go," he said to them. "You probably don't want to have me as a trainer, anyways. My father said... that if I want to work with Pokémon, I have to be perfect. But... I'm not. I can't get there. I probably don't even deserve to call myself his son. It's just... I'm a failure, and my father tells me that every time we make contact. So what's the point in living if you can't get anything right? I guess what I want to say is..." His eyes welled up with tears again. "Good bye!"  
  
(A/N: Though that would make a nice character flaw, I'm not portraying Bill as a crybaby. I'm portraying him as just a kid who's had WAY too much pressure put on him. If I remember correctly, that often happens to Japanese children anyways, so I guess it can be a cultural reference as well. ^_^;)  
  
With that, he turned and quickly ran towards the cliff. He pushed himself off as far as he would go, and at that point, with that final push, time seemed to move slowly. The light of the new dawn drew across the horizon as he felt the wind in his face and heard prayers flow from his mouth into his ears. This was it; he was going to die.  
  
Suddenly, something wrapped around his wrist, flung him back up the cliff, and wrapped around him, binding him from the chest to the waist and clamping his arms to his sides. He was raised high into the air as he struggled before he opened his eyes and found himself staring down at his Pokémon. Ivysaur, whose vines bound him and kept him from plunging into oblivion, stared up at him with a look almost indescribable.  
  
His eyes brimmed with tears as he screamed, "Why!? Why did you do that to me!? Why, Ivysaur!? Just let me go!"  
  
He closed his eyes and sobbed, allowing a few tears to fall on Ivysaur's vines.  
  
Just then, a new light lit up the back of his eyelids. He slowly opened his eyes to find that, in the pink of the rising sun, his Ivysaur was engulfed in light.  
  
"What's going on?" he asked softly. "What are you doing?"  
  
Both the boy and the Meowth watched in awe as the Ivysaur grew in height and width. Its flower rose higher, and its leaves multiplied. And then, at the very climax, bathed in morning light, each petal of the flower peeled away, slowly in a magnificent show of grace and splendor. It bloomed, completing the evolution.  
  
"You... You evolved... for me..."  
  
The boy blinked a few times, then began to cry again, though this time, out of joy.  
  
"Thank you..."  
  
The scene faded away. The Meowth sitting a bit away wiped tears from his eyes.  
  
"That's the reason why I wanted to become a Pokémon researcher," he said to himself. "I was enchanted by Ivysaur's evolution, and I wanted to thank it and all Pokémon for saving my life. But I don't understand... You've shown me things connected with my darker feelings -- my fears, my hatred... How does this fit in?"  
  
"It was to show you that you aren't alone."  
  
Bill looked up to see Morpheus standing over him.  
  
"Morpheus!" Bill exclaimed in surprise.  
  
"The boat ride was boring without you," Morpheus explained. "So, I followed you and saw everything."  
  
"But... What do you mean when you said I'm not alone?" Bill asked.  
  
"You aren't alone," Morpheus repeated. "You have friends -- though a very sparse few that are human -- and family to talk to. All mortals are blind to something, and while you isolate yourself, both mentally and physically, you only keep yourself blind to the fact that there are souls around who can help you and who can make you happy... And there are people around you whom you can help and make happy in return. Though the things you went through concerning Alice and your father are INCREDIBLY painful, you don't have to think that the only person you can turn to is yourself. I suppose your problem is thinking that people aren't reliable, and you should do your best to correct that problem. Understand?"  
  
Bill nodded slowly. "Yes... I think so..."  
  
The Meowth allowed his eyes to close for a bit. When he reopened them again, he found himself back in the boat. The ocean was calm, and everything was as if nothing had happened. Morpheus sat at one end of the boat, staring up at the night sky as he left Bill alone in the shack to think.  
  
"I'm not alone," Bill mumbled, as if it was a new concept to him. "I'm not alone..."  
  
---  
  
Rose wiped her tears away, unable to face her husband while crying. She was about to lose a son, and her daughter went missing just a couple of weeks earlier. Now, she and her husband were putting signs all over Goldenrod City in an effort to find the little girl and bring her home. But with this sad point came a point of light; as Rose's husband busied himself by trying to find Ellie, he had forgotten all about calling the hospital and telling them to pull the plug on Rose's son. So, as long as Ellie was missing, Bill was given more time to awaken at last from his seemingly eternal sleep.  
  
With a pack of fliers in her arms, Rose walked with her husband. The two passed over a bridge and to another part of Goldenrod City to find more people to help them find their lost daughter as quickly as possible. Little did they know that under that bridge was a little girl, clinging to her backpack.  
  
"Mama, I'm sorry," Ellie murmured as she sat near a homeless family under that very bridge. "I don't want Big Brother to die. I won't let you and Daddy kill him..." 


	6. Night Six: Haunted

Author's responses:  
  
-To Melchior the Mewthree: Thanks for yet another review. ^_^ (And I was quite amused by your muse. =D)  
  
-To DarkCatXX: Thanks again for the compliments. It's alright to not have much to say. ^_^  
  
Further note: This chapter contains lyrics of "Wind's Nocturne" from Lunar Silver Star Story. It's a beautiful song that's worth your time, and yes, I think it could be the theme to How Bizarre... ^_^  
  
---  
  
Night Six: Haunted  
  
Morpheus opened his weary, golden eyes and looked up from where he sat under the shelter built into the boat. His eyes gazed with a slight glance at the Meowth leaning over the edge of the boat, staring at the crystal-clear waters under the galaxy-filled sky. A smile drew across the god's lips at this sight.  
  
"You're beginning to figure things out," he murmured, more to himself than to Bill. "It will only be a matter of time until we reach the Lotus Temple..."  
  
With that, Morpheus closed his eyes again and attempted to sleep.  
  
Meanwhile, Bill looked over his shoulder, trying to decide whether or not he had heard Morpheus say something. Eventually, he simply shrugged it off, thinking that it was yet another figment of his imagination. With a sigh, he looked back out at the black waters and the starry, somewhat multi-colored sky. He recalled over and over again the words that Morpheus had spoken to him earlier.  
  
"You aren't alone... You don't have to think that the only person you can turn to is yourself."  
  
But... People can come and go, and they can lie to your face and use you while they're at it. That's the way things were, and Bill knew that. How could he trust someone if the next day, they would just disappear from his life?  
  
It wasn't just about Alice's death, either, nor was it about the thousands of promises his father had broken to him. It was about how, throughout his life, people used him. Throughout his years at school, he had always been the top of the class, and because of this, he would always wind up doing someone else's homework or help them with schoolwork, either because he couldn't refuse them or because he was bullied into doing it. Never was it out of friendship; he had no friends during that time, save for Alice up until his senior year at the academy he had attended.  
  
But it didn't stop there. When he became famous as a researcher, just because he was in the newspapers, there had been relatives who tried to use that as an opportunity to become something themselves. Even if Bill didn't always see proof of this, he knew what was going on whenever a cousin that previously treated him like nothing would grin at him like he had always been a favorite cousin of theirs. Call it paranoia, if you will, but it was true.  
  
That's why he cut off contact to civilization and isolated himself in the middle of nowhere. People had a tendency to hurt him, so if he stayed away from them, he knew he would be alright.  
  
He closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them to watch streaks of light going across the sky. He craned his neck to look at the dazzling show the heavens were putting on for him.  
  
"A meteor shower," he said with a breathy voice.  
  
Suddenly, when time previously seemed to have gone too slow, it picked up speed at last, and the heavenly rocks plunged into the sea. However, that was not all of it. The meteors were bigger than they looked, and as they fell into the ocean, the force of their landing caused the water to rush out from beneath the cosmic stones, creating great tidal waves that traveled out, towards everything around the shower... specifically, the boat. Bill gasped and rushed under the shelter to awaken Morpheus with the false hope that the god could do something.  
  
However, Bill only touched Morpheus' arm when the tsunami picked up the boat and tilted it, causing the Meowth inside to tumble past the god of dreams.  
  
"Not again...!" Bill cried as he was flung off the edge of the boat once again.  
  
He closed his eyes and braced himself to be engulfed by darkness once more. However, that event did not come. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and looked about him in confusion. All around him, frozen in time, was the turmoil of the water. The great waves were motionless, and their transparent blue-green color made them appear almost like giant sculptures of glass.  
  
Bill stood and tapped one of his hind paws on the water cautiously, then jumped up and down on the ocean's surface to make sure that everything beneath him was solid. Not only WAS it solid, but it felt strange to the bottoms of his paws. Almost like ice, but not as frigid. Somewhat like the smoothness and coolness of glass (it even produced the sort of sound solid glass would make when Bill tapped it), yet it still found a way to feel... like liquid.  
  
The Meowth glanced up to see the boat embedded in the top of a wave. Carefully, he made his way back towards it and began climbing up its side, slipping every so often. Morpheus, who had just then awoken, yawned and watched Bill's ascent.  
  
"Time froze," Morpheus muttered with boredom in his voice, as if it was a normal occurrence for the clock to be erratic.  
  
A chill went down Bill's spine. Everything sounded like a museum. Quiet. Too quiet.  
  
"How long until it unfreezes?" Bill asked.  
  
Morpheus shrugged. "Maybe a few moments, maybe it won't at all."  
  
Bill frowned as he mounted the top of the wave and looked out all around him. He squinted his eyes straight ahead, at a thick, brown line along part of the horizon.  
  
"Land..." Bill grinned with growing excitement. "I see land! Morpheus, is that where the Lotus Temple is?"  
  
Morpheus didn't respond. He only stared straight ahead, at the line of brown on the horizon.  
  
"Will I make it there if I ran?" Bill inquired. "Will the ocean stay frozen long enough for me to set foot on solid ground?"  
  
Again, Morpheus said nothing. This time, however, the silence endured for awhile.  
  
"Morpheus, what's the matter?" Bill asked cautiously. "Should I not go there? Is that not where the Lotus Temple lies?"  
  
"What does your heart tell you?" Morpheus finally asked.  
  
Bill fell silent. He wasn't expecting that kind of answer, and he was left to stare at Morpheus with a surprised look on his face. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to form an answer in his mind. Morpheus, sensing the youth's confusion, rephrased his question.  
  
"Do you think, with all your heart, that the way to go is that way, or are you simply thinking that it is with your head?"  
  
Bill opened his eyes. "What do you mean? How can I think with my heart?"  
  
Morpheus shook his head. "Bill, you understand many things, but it's surprising that you cannot comprehend something as simple as that. Your heart knows as much as your mind -- perhaps even more. Learn to trust it. You have done so thus far with relying on your intuition to get us here. It is now time to realize what you are doing, and it is time for you to begin doing it more often.  
  
"Although one cannot live by trusting his heart alone, no one can rely on their minds alone either. You, a man of facts and figures, have no trust in the decisions made by your heart; I have sensed doubt and anxiety every time you continued on because that's what your heart said you should do. You must realize that even if your heart cannot provide evidence and reasons to why it tells you something, the decisions it makes are just as safe as those made by your mind. And this goes especially for you, with a heart so pure, wise, and innocent -- certainly one that would do no wrong to others or the rest of you.  
  
"And so, I ask you again. Do you FEEL that the Lotus Temple is beyond the horizon before us, or do you simply THINK it is?"  
  
There was a pause as Bill allowed Morpheus' words to sink in and as he tried to come up with an answer. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind, forbidding it to make his decision as he attempted to let his heart speak, though he wasn't sure how. It seemed like hours passed before he could finally say something, something that came from deep within his soul, not within his consciousness.  
  
"It's that way," he said, pointing to the brown horizon. "I know it. Deep inside, I know it."  
  
Morpheus judged the youth's answer by the tone of his voice and smiled. The god could tell that Bill understood and let his heart speak for once. With that, the horned being floated down, away from the wave. When he realized he wasn't being followed, he turned his head and glanced up at the Meowth, who was watching him with curiosity.  
  
"Well? Come on!" Morpheus called. "I can't get to my destination if I don't know the way! However, I'm sure YOU know EXACTLY where we're going!"  
  
Bill grinned sheepishly and scampered down the frozen tsunami on all fours before leading Morpheus to the horizon, across the frozen sea.  
  
He didn't notice how Meowth-like he was beginning to act...  
  
---  
  
He didn't know how long he had been running, but it seemed as if the landmass ran towards him at the exact same speed. And for this, he thanked all the gods he knew of as the air he took in painfully stung the inside of his throat and his lungs. He noticed a soft tune flowing into his ears, but he didn't think much of it. Not until he finally reached the sandy beaches of the landmass and collapsed on his stomach did he listen to the familiar voice sing softly to him. His ears perked up as soon as he heard her sweet voice...  
  
"Wishing on a dream that seems far off  
  
Hoping it would come today  
  
Into the starlit night, foolish dreamers turn their gaze  
  
Waiting on a shooting star..."  
  
Bill closed his eyes for a moment and frowned in perplexity. It couldn't be... Could it?  
  
Slowly (and painfully), he rose to his hind paws and began walking towards the source of the sound. He didn't care whether Morpheus was by his side or not; he somewhat forgot about the god. He didn't even notice as he stepped off the sandy beaches and into a hilly meadow full of lush, green grass and beautiful flowers swaying in the pure, spring breeze that blew past to cool the land down. He didn't notice the beauty of anything. Nothing except the innocence of a child's voice, singing in the distance.  
  
"But... What if that star is not to come?  
  
Will their dreams fade to nothing?  
  
When the horizon darkens most,  
  
We all need to believe there is hope..."  
  
It didn't take him long to find the singer. She was a young, plump girl, not thin and not obese, but somewhat off normal. Her pale skin was covered in an Alice in Wonderland attire -- a light blue dress covered with a frilly, white apron, white, knee-high socks, black shoes, and a black headband in her chin-length, dirty-blonde hair. She stood on a tree stump, singing to a bunch of Rattata, Pidgey, and Taillow as well as a few white rabbits, all looking up at her intently. Bill stood behind her, waiting for a chance to approach as he listened to her continue to sing.  
  
"Is an angel watching closely over me?  
  
Can there be a guiding light I've yet to see?  
  
I know my heart should guide me, but...  
  
There's a hole within my soul..."  
  
Bill took a step forward. He cautiously inched towards the girl, wanting so badly to touch her and make sure she was real...  
  
"What will fill this emptiness inside of me?  
  
Am I to be satisfied without knowing?  
  
I wish, then, for a chance to see  
  
Now all I need, desperately..."  
  
Bill reached out to touch the hem of her dress. It was a bad move, and she disappeared as a flurry of pale, pink flower petals dancing in the wind and swirling about the Pokémon and the animals as they scampered away into oblivion. Bill knelt down in front of the stump, feeling quite empty inside as the girl's voice finished off the song, regardless of whether or not her body was present.  
  
"...Is my star to come..."  
  
There was a long period of silence. Bill wasn't even aware that Morpheus -- or anything else -- was around at that point as he stared at the spot where the girl formerly stood.  
  
"That was Alice, wasn't it?"  
  
Bill looked up at Morpheus with wide eyes, completely surprised by the god's voice. With weak and unsure movements, he nodded. He looked down at the ground once more, not wanting to glance up at Morpheus' face.  
  
"She used to sing to me that way," Bill recalled. "All the time... by the river. She had such a sweet voice. It wasn't the best, but it was sweet, just like her."  
  
He stood up.  
  
"Alice... Never was a Pokémon trainer. She didn't care about Pokémon, much like how I didn't care all those years ago," Bill told Morpheus as he stared at the blue sky with white clouds stampeding across it. "No one said she was pretty, and she wasn't the most intelligent person I know. But she... She had something about her. Something no one else could have. A warmth deep in her heart. I could... I could see it every time she smiled. I could feel it whenever she was around. I could hear it whenever she laughed... It sounded like wind chimes. And... nothing else mattered about her, except that warmth. It didn't matter that she couldn't handle a Pokémon if she had been given one; it didn't matter if she didn't quite make good marks in school... It didn't even matter that she wasn't flawless. It didn't matter. Whenever I was around her... She made me happy. And then..."  
  
Bill tore his eyes away from the sky and pulled himself onto the stump to sit down. He stared at his hind paws before he continued.  
  
"...And then she was gone," he said extremely faintly. "Leukemia. She was... She was in pain for months, and there was nothing anyone could do for her. Her parents... Her parents had gotten a divorce not long before. She lived with her mother most of the time, and her mother didn't have a great job. There was barely even enough money to make her comfortable during those last few weeks. But... But I visited her every day and sat by her bedside, always hoping that there was a chance, a shimmer of hope... Something that could say that she would get better..."  
  
His body shook as he held back his emotions. He couldn't show them. Not in front of someone. No, never. He couldn't...  
  
"Then... One day... I came to visit her. She was having a hard time breathing. But I stood there and kept her company; my visits made her smile during those days. But that day... She smiled at me... She gave me a look that I can't even describe completely. It was as if she was trying to tell me that everything was going to be alright... That she was going to be okay... And then... And then... She sang to me. She sang that song to me. And at the very end... She said that I didn't have to worry about her. After that she... She closed her eyes... And fell asleep... And I waited... And waited... And... I felt her wrist... There was nothing. No pulse..."  
  
Bill trailed off as his voice broke up. He cleared his throat and stood.  
  
"I-I'm sorry," Bill muttered. "I shouldn't be this emotional."  
  
"On the contrary," Morpheus replied. "Why do you think you've come to this meadow?"  
  
Bill looked at Morpheus with wide, surprised eyes.  
  
"Do you not realize it?" Morpheus asked. "You have a hard time showing your true emotions to others. You fear it and fear that people can use it as a weapon against you, and therefore, you find it hard to express it." Morpheus paused and glanced at Bill. "Is this so?"  
  
There was a long pause before the faint shred of a saddened look crossed Bill's face as he gave a small nod.  
  
"Do you think it could be possible, then, that you had been brought here to help you correct this?" Morpheus inquired. "After all, no human can go their entire lives without expressing any emotion. Not unless they live their lives asleep to the real world. And even then, they can express themselves in wonderful dreams. Do you agree, Bill?"  
  
Again, the youth nodded.  
  
"Then I ask you this," Morpheus said. "How do you truly feel about Alice?"  
  
Bill began walking away, into the green wonderland as Morpheus followed. The Meowth shuddered and touched his chest with a clawed hand, trembling with the emotion building up inside him.  
  
"It's hard to let someone go when you have few people to hold on to," Bill commented in a soft manner. "I don't want to linger in the past, but... she's always there. In my dreams. Haunting me. And yet I... I want to be that happy again. I want to feel the sort of thing I felt when she was near me. I..."  
  
Bill dropped to his knees and bent over, nearly touching the tips of his triangular ears to the soft, green grass. He struggled to hold back all emotion, but he couldn't help it. Tears dripped from the tips of his whiskers as they pulled from his eyes and tangled themselves up in the long, thin strands.  
  
"Morpheus..." Bill murmured.  
  
"Don't resist, Bill," Morpheus responded. "I understand."  
  
And with that, Bill broke down his defenses and let his emotions rush forward like water from behind a broken dam.  
  
---  
  
Ellie poked her head into the hospital room. It was very risky coming in there, especially since it would be the first place her parents looked for her. But a promise is a promise, and she promised her brother that she would visit him every day, no matter what. And even if he was cataleptic and couldn't hear her, she still felt obligated to carry out her self-appointed duty.  
  
She crept forward and stood next to the bed, watching her brother sleep for a long while. Carefully, she reached over to touch his warm hand, as if that would let him know that she was there.  
  
"Big Brother, I kept my promise tonight," she stated. "I came out of my hiding spot to see you. It's been hard to hide because I don't have much with me. But sometimes, I get money from strangers to buy food, or I sneak back home to get something. But I'm good at hiding! Mama and Daddy don't know where I am..."  
  
"We do now."  
  
Ellie shrieked as her father grabbed her by the arm.  
  
"Where have you been!?" he demanded angrily.  
  
"Davis, please be kind to her!" Rose begged from behind him. "She's just a little girl!"  
  
"It doesn't matter!" Davis boomed. "What was she thinking, running off like that and worrying us to no end!? She could have been hurt! Does she have any sense at all!?"  
  
Ellie began to cry, sobbing and hiccupping as the tears flowed from her eyes, down her face, and onto the linoleum floor.  
  
"What's wrong with her this time!?" Davis yelled.  
  
"You're upsetting her!" Rose replied with a voice equaling his in volume.  
  
Ellie pulled away from her father and ran to her mother, embracing her. Tears still slid down the young girl's face as she tried to say what was on her mind.  
  
"Don't kill Big Brother!" she cried between hiccups. "I don't want him to die! Don't let him, Mama! Don't let him!"  
  
Rose's face fell as she knelt down and hugged her daughter. "Is this what this is all about?"  
  
Ellie nodded. "I ran away so you would forget about Big Brother being a problem. I want him to wake up! I don't want him to die!"  
  
"No one does," Rose assured her softly before standing up and taking the child by her hand. "And I promise, no one will let William die." She glanced over her shoulder at her husband with a harsh look on her face. "Now, why don't we get ice cream?"  
  
Ellie wiped her tears and nodded as she walked with her mother out of the room, leaving Davis in silence.  
  
Davis plopped in a chair in the room and stared at his only son, lying there, unchanged since his birthday months ago. Davis certainly didn't want his son to die; Bill's death would mean an end to the continuation of the McKenzie name. And as a typical father, all Davis wanted was to have his surname continue on through the ages, as it had been for countless years already, dating as far back as medieval Scotland.  
  
But did he actually feel any sadness or helplessness? No, not really. His son, to him, was just another person. Another being on that planet who just happened to share a similar genetic code. But they were foreign to each other and had no real relationship. But were there regrets? No. Why? Because Bill was something that Davis couldn't be. He was a success, while Davis was a failure. Never would someone associate the McKenzie name with anyone except Bill. But why did Davis feel no pride in saying that he produced someone of such mental talent?  
  
...Because it made Davis feel as if he couldn't help his family.  
  
The middle-aged man had always hoped to hit the jackpot at the slots to make his family rich, and because of that, he spent most of his time in front of the dazzling machine, pulling the lever and hoping to god that he would be a winner.  
  
But that never happened. His son went to college, was inducted into the Pokémon Symposium (THE most prestigious association of Pokémon researchers in the world), and generally passed the father without any effort. And to top it all off, Bill began to support his family, always sending half of what he made from his books, articles, inventions, and occasional radio shows back to Goldenrod to give his family something to live off of.  
  
And this all made Davis feel like nothing. He was ashamed. He wanted his son to be perfect, and now that he is, Davis only wished he was flawed.  
  
And so, he's faced with the decision... Waste money to keep the person who humiliated him alive or pull the plug and break the hearts of the people he loved most?  
  
Davis sat there, contemplating over what to do. At last, he stood up and walked towards the bed, staring down at his son's face with a tilted head. With a snort, he turned and walked out of the room, leaving Bill in his cold silence. 


	7. Night Seven: Wishing on a Star of Hope

To Melchior: I swear, I don't know how I wound up using that spelling. I usually type offline (I have dial-up, so I can't be on 24/7, though I try to be. ^_^;), and for some reason, I had it misspelled in my mind. I apologize deeply for misspelling your name all along. I swear, I'll try not to do it again. ^_^;  
  
Anywho, I appreciate your comments very much, and I'm quite happy to meet yet another one of your muses. (I'm also amused by what Odin and you have planned to do with Davis. Seems like I got the effect I wanted after all. ^_^)  
  
To DarkCatXX: It makes me very happy to hear you say so much as "Poor Bill." The reason why is because I know what I'm doing is taking effect; I'm getting someone out there to look past the whole Dragonite crap (and it IS really crap, in my opinion -- sorry for the brusqueness) and see that Bill is more than that... even worth sympathizing over. Or maybe it's just that that he's knee deep in trouble. Um... Either. ^_^;  
  
Anywho, other than that, I'm glad it's making sense to SOMEONE out there (Yay! I'm being understood! =D), and hopefully, I'll get this and the last chappies up quickly. (As always, I'm typing this BEFORE I start into the next chapter. Yay for ego boosts!)  
  
Foreword: Sorry it took me awhile to get this up. I ran into a combination of midterms/schoolwork and writer's block after the scene where the Phobia Sisters are introduced in the chapter.  
  
By the way, cookies to whomever gets the joke with this chapter's title. And a hint: It has nothing to do with the content of the chapter (for once). ^_^  
  
---  
  
Night Seven: Wishing on a Star of Hope  
  
The meadow ended abruptly after awhile, dumping itself into a desert of scorching, golden ground and a relentless Emperor Sun sitting in his throne of cerulean blue. Bill stood, staring at the ground in uncertainty until at last he lifted a hind paw and passed into new terrain, allowing it to sink into the sands a little. A strange sensation shot up his leg, and from his throat escaped a startled gasp as all his fur stood on end. He withdrew his paw and lifted it up in such a way to allow him to blow on the underside. It didn't hurt; he felt no pain in this world. It just felt... Different.  
  
"Is there something wrong, Bill?" Morpheus asked for the umpteenth time since Bill literally fell into this world.  
  
Bill shook his head and placed his paw into the sand again, flinching at the sensation before putting the other hind paw in. He stared at his feet in amazement as he continued forward, away from the green meadow until it was nothing by a jade line far behind him. At that point, he smiled, noticing that the sand felt rather good between his toes. Almost instinctively, he dropped to all fours, allowing the sand to wash over ALL of his digits like water in a pond. He held his head high as strange urges ran through his mind -- almost as if something inside had told him to run back to the meadow and prowl. As if... As if...  
  
Morpheus looked at Bill with concern.  
  
"Normally, I would tell you to embrace whatever happens in your dreams," the god muttered. "However... Don't lose yourself, Bill. If you lose your mind in here, you will never return to the real world."  
  
Bill shot an inquisitive glance at Morpheus, unable to understand what the god meant. Then, with a second look at his paws, it hit him with more force than a Blastoise's Skull Bash. A shudder ran down his spine before he shot up, back to standing on only two paws. He dusted the sand off his forepaws and stared at them incredulously.  
  
"What's happening to me, Morpheus?" Bill asked hoarsely. "I... I feel so strange... Like... This isn't what I'm supposed to be doing... I have these strange thoughts running through my head... I keep remembering life in the wild... Like a... Like a..."  
  
"Like a wild Meowth," Morpheus finished with a sigh. "I was afraid of this."  
  
Bill looked at Morpheus fearfully. "What's going on? What does it all mean?"  
  
"We must hurry," Morpheus replied. "I didn't think it would take this long to return you to the real world, but your Lotus Temple is much further away from your consciousness than those of any other person I've visited in the night. We have taken too much time, and your imagination is beginning to eat away at your sense of reality."  
  
"In other words...?"  
  
"Your imagination is forcing you to think you are a Meowth," Morpheus told Bill. "If we do not bring you into reality soon, then the sense of who you really are will be erased within you."  
  
Bill's eyes widened as he quickly ran forward, nearly tripping in the process. He noticed that his body was beginning to tell him to use all four paws again, but he refused to give in. He had to keep himself separate...! He had to remind himself that his current form was not his true form!  
  
"How much further?" Bill asked desperately.  
  
Morpheus made no response. He only floated quickly to keep up with the Meowth. Bill glanced back at his silent friend and soon realized too why he said nothing.  
  
He groaned and muttered, "Of course. Distances aren't a set thing here... What a damned place!"  
  
He didn't notice as a pair of shadows watched him.  
  
"Sister Ornithophobia has told us that the dreamer has assumed the form of a Meowth," one of the shadows recalled. "Could this be the one we seek?"  
  
"It could be none other," the other replied. "Shall we stall him, Sister Agoraphobia?"  
  
"Why shouldn't we, Enochlophobia?" the first responded.  
  
Both giggled and disappeared into the desert afternoon.  
  
---  
  
His breathing came in shuddering gasps, as if his lungs would explode. His mind told him to continue, but his legs felt as if they moved through gel. Bill couldn't take it anymore; he couldn't run. He dropped to the sands not more than thirty minutes after he had started, and it was there where he gasped for air like a fish out of water. Even in his dreams, he wasn't athletic.  
  
His head rose slightly as his feline eyes scanned the horizon, praying for some sort of structure that resembled a temple. All he saw was a large, wooden shack not far away. His head lowered in disappointment.  
  
He felt the sun's heat beating down on his fur and scorching the skin beneath. It all felt so real to him -- so real that he could barely tell that it was all simply a dream. And deep inside, this fact tugged at something...  
  
The sunlight bothered him, so he stood and began walking to the shack, kicking up the desert sand beneath his hind paws slightly, not caring that it flew on the occasional cactus or Cacnea now and then. Morpheus watched him move, floating silently behind him with a smile, not giving a hint to what's about to happen.  
  
Bill approached the wooden door of the dilapidated structure, and slowly, he lifted a paw to its rough, wooden door. He paused before pushing it open, allowing to swing forward as its hinges gave a sickeningly loud creak. Carefully, he stepped inside, into the shadow, only to find that he wasn't the only one there.  
  
Sitting in a wooden rocking chair in a dark corner of the shack, lit up only by the beams of sunlight that wormed their way through the cracks between the boards of the wall, was a Gardevoir. She rocked back and forth and sat hunched over as she sewed something together. This and the shawl made of multi-colored (and multi-sized) patches around her shoulders made her appear like a grandmother, though she otherwise didn't seem old.  
  
"Oh! I'm sorry," Bill apologized as he backed out of the shack.  
  
He would have left if Morpheus hadn't been behind him. Bill looked up at the god, only to have him give the little Meowth a small nod. The youth looked back into the shack, noticing that the Gardevoir only gave him a short look with one red eye and continued to sew. Moments later, she nodded, telling him it was alright to come in. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, back into the shade of the shack.  
  
Bill stood awkwardly in the shed, unsure of what to do at that point. Well, save for a small bit of curiosity that worked its way into his brain. Acting on this, he inched towards the Gardevoir, wanting to know what she was putting together. As soon as he was close enough, though, he wished he hadn't.  
  
There, in her lap, was a human heart. Or parts of multiple hearts, all being stitched together carefully by the Gardevoir. And to make things even worse, while blood dripped from it, it beat rhythmically as a normal heart would.  
  
Bill backed away in horror and revulsion. He felt his stomach turn as bile began to climb up his throat slowly. Soon, he backed away, into another wooden object. He carefully turned around to see a row of cradles behind him, all swaying silently by some unknown force. He stood on tiptoe to see the contents of them, only to find children -- babies, all sewn together the same way that the heart was being basted together by the Gardevoir.  
  
Bill's eyes narrowed in disgust as he turned away, facing what he hoped to be an empty corner. It wasn't; the last corner held a wicker basket which contained limbs, organs, and heads, all cut up into smaller pieces, waiting to be sewn together as flies began swarming around them.  
  
He couldn't take it anymore. He turned towards the door and ran, pushing Morpheus aside and kicking up sand in all directions. When he was a good distance away, the vomit rained from his mouth. Morpheus floated up behind him, giving a sympathetic look to the feline's back.  
  
---  
  
The desert sun became increasingly vicious as the pair trudged on. Bill pushed himself to continue, wishing with each step that the Lotus Temple would finally appear to him. And the more he wished, the more he became anxious in that form. He didn't notice as his shadow grew longer or as four eyes opened within it. He DID notice, however, when he heard a strange laughter that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. His head shot up, and he gazed around in an attempt to find the source but found nothing. Quite irritated, he glanced up at Morpheus.  
  
"Don't tell me the desert laughs for no apparent reason too," Bill half-stated, remembering the door knob incident from what seemed like ages ago.  
  
Morpheus only frowned, but he made no reply.  
  
Bill backed away a bit. "Morpheus...?"  
  
Suddenly, the shadows burst from the desert floor and surrounded Bill. He gasped, startled out of his wits as whispers and laughter echoed through his pointed ears. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he didn't it like it nonetheless. His paws slowly drifted up to his ears to cover them as his wide, feline eyes stared at the sky. At that moment, it became obscured by the heads of shadowy figures wavering around him, all staring down at him and crowding him. His breathing became somewhat labored as his blood ran cold with fear. Suddenly, he heard the voices of two women, muffled and faded, but coherent.  
  
"Enochlophobia," one murmured.  
  
"Agoraphobia," the other added.  
  
The first one spoke. "We are two of the Three Sisters."  
  
The second added, "We are twins, never separated."  
  
"Where one is inflicting tragedy..."  
  
"...The other is sure to be nearby."  
  
"The fear of crowds..."  
  
"...And the fear of open, crowded places..."  
  
Their voices became intertwined as they harassed Bill even further.  
  
"What are YOU afraid of, Dreamer...?"  
  
Bill curled up on the sands, unable to move. He was literally frozen in terror as he was attacked by two of his largest fears at once. He preferred not to reveal it to anyone, but he couldn't stand crowded places because he was afraid of them (his enochlophobia). Likewise, he didn't particularly like being out in a crowded city, far away from someplace safe (agoraphobia). Both pulled at his nerves, and both were the sole reason why he lived so far from civilization. He never even went to Goldenrod City during the day -- always at night when everyone was safe in their homes and apartments. The voices and the concept of being all alone in a vast sea of people jostling him and enclosing him put him at his wit's end. It made him think that there was no air to breathe, no way to escape if he wanted to -- as if he was a farm animal in a pen, just waiting to be slaughtered for meat.  
  
And it was all because of...  
  
"Mommy..."  
  
The sound echoed above the crowd's murmuring. Bill's eyes widened until they could grow no larger. He knew that sound. It was imprinted in his mind, but he couldn't figure out where it came from or who it was.  
  
"Mommy, where are you?"  
  
Bill didn't move. He couldn't, save for a small twitch. At last, he craned his neck to look at a space that was created beyond his head. The sea of shadows parted as it flowed around him, revealing a confused child of only about three or four. He was crying. He was alone. He was... He was...  
  
Yep. He was Bill himself, as a young child.  
  
All of a sudden, the Meowth remembered this so clearly, as if it had just happened. It was just days before Christmas, and his mother had taken him with her to finish shopping for gifts. He held his mother's hand obediently and walked beside her, taking in that certain naïve joy that the holiday season seems to maintain up until you reach about college age. The breeze was cool, but not cold, as the Johto air during that time of year never brought arctic winds.  
  
Suddenly, the child felt a low rumble in his stomach and a certain emptiness only one general thing could fill. He tugged on his mother's sleeve to get her attention, causing her to look down at him with her large, dark eyes.  
  
"Mommy, I'm hungry," he told her.  
  
The youthful Rose smiled and looked about, eyes searching for something. After a moment, she continued walking, through the winter air. She pushed through the holiday crowds, pulling her son along closely so as not to lose him until they arrived at her destination, a small pretzel stand nearby. For a brief moment, she let go of her son's hand to dig into her pocket for payment as the other hand held a bag, but that instant was all that was needed.  
  
A Pidgey flew overhead, and the child's gaze followed it. Curious to see where it went, he walked into the crowd, following it further and further away from the pretzel stand. At last, the Pidgey flew over a building, out of sight of the small boy far below and oblivious to what she had just caused. The boy's eyes tore away from the sky, and a sudden, dark realization set in.  
  
He didn't know where he was.  
  
The crowd pushed him further away. Further away from where? He didn't know. He just knew that he wasn't where he was supposed to be, and he wasn't going where he was supposed to go. The crowd surrounded him, suffocated him, and dragged him deeper into the urban jungle. It was relentless. And he wandered for what seemed like hours and hours, confused and frightened. The shadows of the people around him seemed to tower over him, and no one would have seemed to notice or care if he had tripped and fallen. He would only be crushed beneath the beast's million feet.  
  
There was more to the memory, but it eluded Bill at that moment. His younger self disappeared within the darkness of the crowd, never to be seen again. He trembled in fright, unable to grasp any logical thought at that very moment.  
  
"Help me," he managed to whisper to no one in particular.  
  
And then, he heard a faint response, coming from nowhere and everywhere, just like the voices of the Phobia Sisters. Only this time, it was familiar and friendly.  
  
"It's okay... Don't be afraid..."  
  
A figure parted from the crowd and looked down at Bill. Her face was shadowed, but he knew who she was. Suddenly, he remembered the rest of that fateful afternoon long, long ago. How could he let his fears make him forget? It was the day he met Alice...  
  
"Are you lost?" she asked him with a concerned tone, just like she had that day.  
  
Bill nodded, rubbing his cheek into the desert sands.  
  
"Don't cry," she told him with a soothing tone. "You'll find your way back."  
  
She held out her hand to him, offering to help him stand up.  
  
"It'll be okay," she assured him.  
  
Bill stared at her hand for a long moment before reaching up to take it. It felt the way he had remembered it: warm, soft, and gentle. Her smile was as bright as it had ever been as she helped him literally get back on his feet (or hind paws, in his case).  
  
"Don't worry," she said to him. "These crowds aren't anything to be afraid of. There's lots of nice people in them; you just have to know where to look. You see, even if there are bad people in this world, there are good people, too. People who would want to help you if you let them. And if you look hard enough, you'll be able to find some of those kinds of people in these crowds."  
  
It was an incredibly naïve outlook on things, but... somehow... she had a point. Bill's eyes glanced away from her face to find that some of the people in the crowds stepped out of the shadows and gained kind, smiling faces. Albeit, they were strangers, but they seemed... warm.  
  
Suddenly, Bill felt a warmth of a different kind. Alice had wrapped her arms around him, holding him to give him a sense of security. And it worked, though a look of shock lingered on Bill's face. He wasn't quite used to being touched in such an innocent way.  
  
"It's okay," Alice mumbled in one of his pointed ears. "It's going to be alright. You'll see. You'll see..."  
  
And in that moment, Bill felt as if something had been removed from inside him. He didn't know whether it was Alice's words or embrace, but something triggered a change in what he saw. The shadows retreated, and the terror fled from his heart. And for reasons unknown, he wasn't afraid. His eyes looked over Alice's shoulder and into the crowds around them, and suddenly, it didn't seem so big.  
  
Then, Alice added one more thing. "You know, you're not alone, and you'll never be alone. I'll always be with you because we're friends. Trust me."  
  
Bill tensed. He remembered that as well, though it wasn't in a crowd of sorts. It was by the river. It was during one of those times when Bill felt frustrated and saddened because his father had told him that his best wasn't good enough. But... he didn't tell Alice that. He wouldn't; she probably didn't want to hear it since she very rarely saw her OWN father. But then, as Bill watched the Magikarp swim by in the river, he felt her put her arms around his shoulders gently as she leaned forward, against his back. And, in that moment, she told him those very words.  
  
In the distance, Bill could hear a pair of voices cry out very faintly -- supposedly the Phobia Sisters -- before at last, they vanished into oblivion as the last shadows at the edge of the crowd were crushed. It didn't matter anymore. It was alright. Bill closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, that precious moment in the arms of his childhood friend.  
  
Then, suddenly, she slipped away from him and disappeared in a cloud of pink smoke that followed the wind. The crowd disappeared with her, leaving Bill once again alone in the desert sands. However, he was not left without any last words from her.  
  
"I'll meet you at the Lotus Temple..."  
  
Bill knelt in the sands, hanging onto the thought of Alice -- her touch, her warmth, her voice...  
  
"Bill?"  
  
The Meowth opened his eyes and looked up, staring at the god's golden eyes.  
  
"Are you alright?" Morpheus inquired.  
  
Bill stood up. "O-of course."  
  
Morpheus smiled. "Good. Because in your wanderings without me, you got a little closer to the Lotus Temple."  
  
The immortal moved aside, allowing the youth to view what was ahead. Before him, purplish gray mountain rose to the sky. Atop it was a Chinese-style temple that just touched a rose-colored moon, as if it held it in the sky. And surely, it could only be one thing.  
  
"The Lotus Temple," Bill muttered in awe.  
  
Morpheus only grinned and nodded in response, filling Bill with an incredible sense of joy and relief.  
  
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bill asked rhetorically before parading forward. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave this dream!"  
  
As Bill walked to the foot of the mountain, a half-hearted smile drew across Morpheus' face. The god gave a sigh as he watched Bill walk forward in confidence and excitement.  
  
"If only it were that easy," Morpheus whispered to himself. "I've kept you from giving in to insanity thus far, but the Lotus Temple will be the hardest trial you will face yet..."  
  
---  
  
Ellie walked into the room alone, as she had been for the past few weeks. She looked sadly at her brother before she walked up to the side of the bed and touched his slowly cooling hand. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she spoke.  
  
"I've come like I always have, Big Brother," she stated. "But... Mama and Daddy were fighting over you. Mama wants to keep you, but Daddy doesn't think we have enough money to do it. It's been going on like this since the day we found out that you weren't going to wake up, but it got worse. And now, Daddy's been staying away from home longer and longer. This time, he hasn't even been home for three days, and some of the things around the house that Daddy really likes are gone. I miss Daddy, but what should I do? Daddy will go away if... If..."  
  
Ellie trailed off, not wanting to say it. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She loved her brother, but she loved her father too. She didn't know which one to choose, and she didn't know how to carry out her choice.  
  
At last, after moments of turmoil within her young mind, she came to a decision. She walked around to the other side of the bed, where the machines that kept Bill alive all stood. Carefully, she slid behind one and looked in front of her to see a large, black plug belonging to a surge protector which connected all the machines to a source of power. Her tiny hand reached up and curled around the head of the plug before she hesitated. She wiped her eyes from her free hand, whimpered, and tugged until the plug was pulled free from the wall.  
  
The silence was deafening. No longer did machines whir or beep. No longer did anything move. Ellie slid out from behind the machine and looked at what she had done with tear-filled eyes.  
  
"Good bye, Big Brother!" she screamed before running out of the room in tears. 


	8. Night Eight: Total Eclipse of the Heart

To Melchior the Mewthree and company: *watches as the brawl takes place in the review box* .... O_o; Um... Those bloodstains will come out, right? This place is rented... ._.;  
  
Anywho, thanks for the lovely review! ^_^ And there's no such thing as too many exclamation points... Unless you've done a whole row of 'em. ^_^;  
  
To Tanya*Nonsutoppo/Tanya: *holds up a tissue* Don't worry. It'll get better. You'll see. ^_^  
  
To Light Sneasel: It's good to hear from you again, buddy. ^_^  
  
Anywho, you've looked deeper than some of the other reviewers, which is what I was aiming for. I can't (actually, shouldn't and wouldn't want to) answer some of the questions you've posed; as always, the answers are all up to the readers' interpretations. However, I compliment you on the way you were able to look at what I, as the narrator, was able to tell the audience to see a bit more of the picture in a different light. Hopefully, that makes sense to you and to anyone else who's reading this. ^_^;  
  
To DarkCatXX: Well, okay. There's ONE question I can answer, and it's the one you asked. And it's a good one that I've been meaning to explain anyways. ^_^;  
  
Anywho, I chose Meowth as Bill's dream form for two reasons. The first being that it was the closest thing to the white cats in Cat Soup, and my original vision for this story was to be a sort of Cat Soup idea in the Pokémon universe. (So, essentially, one reason why I turned Bill into a Meowth is so that he could become the Nyaata of the Pokémon world.) The second reason, however, is just because I thought it would be amusing to turn Bill into a character with the same voice actor. (Both Meowth and Bill are/were voiced by Maddie Blaustein.) I dunno. I get amusement out of the littlest of things. ^_^;  
  
As for the title (which no one seemed to get), it's really just a reference to The Seven Nights' Star of Hope: Jirachii (aka The Wishing Star of Seven Nights), the sixth Pokémon movie. And I swear, I'll try not to stoop as low as to do something that corny again. ^_^;  
  
And as for the first part of your review (the part where you hoped Bill would wake up soon)... You'll just have to wait and find out... ^_-  
  
Explanations: I thought I had to clear things up a bit. ^_^;  
  
1. I'm well aware that Ellie is too young to understand what the machines that are hooked up to Bill do. (She's only supposed to be seven or eight, mind you.) However, she constantly heard her father say that he thought it would be best if the doctors "pulled the plug on Bill." She thought it meant literally. =P  
  
2. I'm surprised no one took it the wrong way when I had mentioned that Bill "wasn't used to being touched so innocently" when he was hugged by "Alice." I thought it would be interesting if someone took that as some odd sign that he had been through abuse or even rape, as one person took the ideas from the second episode of Alien Nine. (Yuri was scared of boys with aliens on their heads in that episode, and one reviewer took it as a sign that she had been raped in the past. ^_^;) However, I meant it as a sign that he WAS abused -- by his father. Whether it was physical or mental (or even, on a very sick and very dark level, sexual) abuse is up to your own interpretation. ^_- (Thought it would be amusing to bring that up.)  
  
That said, enjoy this chapter! ^_^  
  
---  
  
Night Eight: Total Eclipse of the Heart  
  
The shadowed figure stared up at the building with his dark green eyes. The wooden doors before him with their intricate carvings of runes and symbols were the only two things that stood between him and total control. Well, actually, two of three things...  
  
"Nightmare!"  
  
With an irritated glance, he looked back to see his feathered comrade land behind him. She ruffled her ebony coat as she looked at him in anger.  
  
"My sisters are dead," she sneered. "The dreamer is strong when you made him seem weak. His will overpowered Enochlophobia and Agoraphobia before their battle began. I watched it all."  
  
"What is your point, Ornithophobia?" Nightmare snapped. "Your sisters were weak."  
  
"The Dreamer overcame them!" Ornithophobia hissed. "He'll overcome all of us, one by one until not one of us remain standing!""  
  
Nightmare laughed and pushed open the doors.  
  
"Silly little being," he said. "You worry about the impossible. I will become the dreamer, and we will do whatever we want. And the current Dreamer... He will fade away into nothingness."  
  
Ornithophobia replied with a skeptical look as Nightmare walked inside, looking about the ornate, golden hall. All over the place, there were doors and corridors, all leading to something wonderful. The best memories and the happiest thoughts all resided within that very temple, enshrined like a million gods upon golden thrones.  
  
"It's too bright," Nightmare commented as he held up his clawed, demonic hands.  
  
Darkness flowed from his body, seeping into every corner and through every wall. Shadows tainted the sanctuary, making what was innocent and holy corrupted and dark. The shrines were vandalized.  
  
"Much better," Nightmare murmured as he lowered his hands. "Come, Ornithophobia. We are looking for a pin among needles."  
  
As the shadow glided through the temple, the bird queen gave an uncertain look to the outside before reluctantly following her master.  
  
---  
  
It had taken what seemed like hours to reach the Lotus Temple, and, as Bill stood breathlessly at the open, wooden doors, he stared in dismay at what he saw. The same green, dark, labyrinthine room he had been in when he entered this world.  
  
"Don't tell me we're back where we started," Bill muttered with a groan.  
  
Morpheus frowned. "No. We're not back where we started. We are in a different place. But..."  
  
Bill looked up at the god. "But...?"  
  
Morpheus' golden eyes glanced about the chamber. "No Lotus Temple I have ever entered appeared quite like yours. Something is wrong..."  
  
A dark, cold feeling gripped Bill's heart. "What... What do you mean?"  
  
Morpheus frowned. "Never mind. Our first priority is only to find the portal to the real world."  
  
"Right," Bill responded with a nod before he glanced at the interior of the temple. "...But I haven't the faintest idea where that might be."  
  
"The portal is something very precious to you," Morpheus told him. "Something that is irreplaceable. Something you need desperately."  
  
"What?" Bill asked, listening to Morpheus closely.  
  
The god smiled sheepishly. "I don't know."  
  
A strange look graced Bill's face, twisting his feline features into an expression of a cross between confusion, frustration, and fear.  
  
"The thing I speak of varies by person," Morpheus explained. "The reason why is because people vary in needs. However, you will be able to tell what it is you're missing as soon as you see it. As soon as right now, actually. What do you feel deep within your heart?"  
  
Bill gave Morpheus a perplexed glance before shutting his cat eyes. Carefully, he searched deep within the darkness, trying to find the thing that Morpheus was referring to. He found nothing within him. Nothing except...  
  
A space. A space deep inside him. Gingerly, he "felt" around its edges and into its interior, getting an idea of its depth. However, he didn't know what went in there. He knew something did, but what was another story. He didn't even know how long the hole was there -- how long he had gone about his way, oblivious to the growing space inside him.  
  
"Well?"  
  
At first, Bill didn't respond to the god's word. He only kept sensing in awe that thing that he had somehow overlooked for all this time. At last, he spoke.  
  
"There's something missing, but I don't know what was there... or how long it's been gone," Bill said.  
  
Then, as if his body acted on its own, Bill stepped forward, into the temple, going further and further into its dark depths as he explored that within himself.  
  
"Morpheus, what was there?" Bill inquired.  
  
Silence was all around him.  
  
"Morpheus?"  
  
He opened his eyes and glanced over his shoulder to see an empty space behind him.  
  
Suddenly, the floor gave out beneath him. His hind paws betrayed him, and he plunged into the darkness below. A darkness as deep and unknown as anything else he ever knew...  
  
---  
  
His cat-like eyes opened up to find himself face-down in a world of dull light. Pain spread through his feline body, causing him to flinch just slightly before at last he turned over to lay on his back, moving his tail out of the way to make himself a bit more comfortable. He remained there with his eyes closed, doing absolutely nothing for the longest while. At last, he opened his eyes once more and stared at the ceiling of the room, noting that there was no portal through which he fell through, though he obviously fell when he came to this area.  
  
"Where am I...?" he asked himself before pushing himself into a sitting position.  
  
He looked about himself. He was in a hallway lit by dim lamps set every few feet in the ceiling. Doors lined the hallway, each one having a different number and a different color or made of a different material than the one next to it. And all of them stirred Bill's curiosity. What could be behind each door? A way out? Or something... else?  
  
A cold fear settled within him, resting in his chest and landing as a hard knot in the pit of his stomach. He shivered at the ideas of what that "else" may be. A thousand terrors ran through his mind -- fantastic ideas of the worst of things, ranging from an aviary of raptor Pokémon to a trap that would keep him there forever. He trembled with anxiety as he slowly stood up and began his long walk down the hallway. He glanced from one side to the other, examining each door. Minutes flew by like a swarm of butterflies on the wind as he kept going, further and further into eternity. Still, he didn't touch so much as a doorknob for fear of what might be beyond it. To try to take his mind off of this odd thought, he took a deep breath and looked forward -- straight forward. The hall before him extended into a dot in oblivion.  
  
"Morpheus...?" he murmured.  
  
His voice echoed as a soft whisper against the silent walls of the hallway, but otherwise, no one responded. He was alone. With that thought clawing at his brain, he kept walking.  
  
Curiosity soon got to him, and he walked to the right to stand in front of a wooden, blue door with seventeen in numbers of gold nailed to the door. Carefully, he reached up to the knob and turned it. It swung open rather easily, revealing a still room beyond it.  
  
The room was as large as a cathedral and twice as somber. On the walls, covering them like wallpaper, were thousands upon thousands of index cards in neat columns. Each column rose up the wall like ivy --some marked with dark, ebony ink, most still blank. Bill stepped in and walked to a wall to read the headers of each card at eye level.  
  
"Books I've read," he read aloud. He paused to raise his eyes up the tall column before continuing on to the next column and the one after that. And as he walked, he read each header, one by one. "Music I like... Pokémon I like... People I've met... Embarrassing moments... Things' I've done with my sisters..."  
  
Here, he stopped, staring at the next header. He felt the color drain from his cheeks as his wide, feline eyes found themselves unable to look away. The words on the card burned into him like fire.  
  
"...Sins I've committed."  
  
Bill's eyes rose, traveling up the column as his heart filled with guilt. He couldn't remember doing much of this, and yet, it all seemed familiar. The crimes he had committed...  
  
The last card marked in ebony ink was far too high for him to read, but he knew what it said. He just knew it. The reason was simply that it was the most basic sin he is guilty of.  
  
"Denied the existence of god," he muttered to himself.  
  
Bill had no use for god. He just didn't. Almost everything could be explained by science and logic, and the things that COULDN'T be explained could probably be defined by a science yet to be known. It was his philosophy, and he stuck by it. He purged himself of all belief in god, in Heaven, and in angels as well as in Hell, the devil, and demons. He didn't consider any of it to exist. In fact, the presence of Morpheus didn't even help him think about the existence of an afterlife; he simply thought that everything that had happened so far was plainly the result of his subconscious. Nothing more, nothing less.  
  
Yet, deep in his heart, he had a streak of Christianity. He was born a Catholic and had attended church with his mother and sisters up until he was around ten years of age, the time when he denounced religion and went with atheism. However, it had been that streak of Christianity still within him that stabbed his heart and soul with the knife of culpability as his eyes remained glued to the cards on the wall.  
  
He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head before continuing on. However, the next cards weren't too promising either.  
  
"Things I should do but don't. Things I shouldn't do. Mistakes I've made. Promises I've broken. Things I wish I did. Things I wish I didn't do..."  
  
His paws froze to the ground as his eyes forced him to look at these columns. Dark brown irises clouded with a watery mist as he read the things on the cards, one by one. The people he lied to. The times he couldn't make it home for Christmas because he was busy. The incidents when his father and him had vicious rows because they couldn't see eye to eye. The moments he made Ellie cry because of that. He realized with a blunt horror that he hurt a lot of people. He had thought and hoped that he could do no wrong (intentionally), but here it all was. Every last fault he had, every last crime he intentionally committed against those around him. They were all there in plain, black ink. His true humanity.  
  
He couldn't let it be so obvious! He... He had to get rid of those cards!  
  
His claws shot out of his forepaws, and with an animalistic scream, he slashed at the wall, cutting the cards to the point where they were virtually unreadable. However, his blood ran cold when the damaged cards put them back together, dark ink glistening like snake fangs once more. Again, he screamed and slashed the cards, only to have them come back together yet again. The cycle continued twice more until Bill slumped down in defeat as his claws moved slowly down the wall and as tears rolled down his furry cheeks.  
  
"I'm sorry," he sobbed. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry...! I'm sorry... I'm..."  
  
Bill breathed in slowly, already tired by it all. He closed his eyes and rested a bit until he heard a small rattle behind him. His eyes shot open, and he slowly sat up and looked over his shoulder cautiously. There was nothing there. Nothing but a blank space.  
  
Slowly, he rose to his hind paws and slinked towards the open door. Carefully, he stepped into the doorway and peered beyond it, looking down the way he came, then down the way he had yet to go. Just as his gaze went down the unknown path, a red door several feet away slammed shut. Curiosity and fear crawled into his heart, curled up, and slept with each other there. A thousand dark thoughts crossed his mind. There was something there, but what it was, he didn't know.  
  
He hesitated for a moment, debating with himself about whether or not to go on. At last, he pushed himself forward, out the door with the note cards and down the hall to the red door. His eyes were fixed to it. He looked like a child staring at something he shouldn't touch, but he felt like a mortal facing the unknown depths of death.  
  
At last, his furry paw lifted from his side and to the shining, gold knob. With another pause, he stood, frozen like that in a strange uncertainty. Then, slowly, he turned the knob and pushed the door open...  
  
...Only to see another hallway.  
  
But it wasn't exactly usual. Beyond the door, he saw a hallway identical to the one the rest of him still remained in. And several feet down this hallway, to the left, he saw a Meowth leaning through a threshold similar to the one he leaned through, peering into an unknown space. He was looking into a mirror image...  
  
Suddenly, a shadow appeared at the far end of the hall. Swiftly, it made its way down the hall, gliding closer and closer to Bill. As he felt it glide past his tail, a shriek of terror ripped from his throat. With that, he slammed the door shut on the face of the shadow, creating a precious barrier between its terrifyingly green eyes and his own. He gasped for breath as his blood ran cold and as cold sweat began to soak his fur coat.  
  
He heard the creaking of another set of hinges. His heart pounded in terror as he turned his head towards a door a few more feet down the hall. It was a green one that swung open without anyone to push it open. He stared at it in dread, expecting a demon of some sort to leap from it and attack him.  
  
Moments -- precious, silent moments passed without a movement from any living creature in the hall (the doors included). Cautiously, Bill parted from the red door and made his way towards the green one. Slowly, he peered around it to gaze beyond the threshold.  
  
There, before his eyes, was a grand garden. He pulled himself beyond the door to get a good look at its stone pathways and green grass. Its beds of unfamiliar (and familiar) flowers and rows of berry trees lay before him. All of it seemed so quiet and peaceful. He couldn't help but step beyond the entry, straight into the garden. He didn't notice as the door closed gently behind him.  
  
The warm air enveloped him and pulled him forward. Aromas danced into his unseen nose, and a strange, soft feeling eased through his white fur and onto his soft skin. He dwelled in the beauty of it all.  
  
As all his worries seemed to part his body, Bill meandered about the garden, gazing silently at all the foliage in his serene wonder. At last, he found himself ascending a grassy hill on which a Pomeg Berry tree grew. When he at last realized where he was standing, he glanced up at the grand tree and at the figure sitting in its shade.  
  
She was a delicate girl in a white dress. Her skin appeared to be that of a china doll's: pale and smooth. Her eyes were an azure blue, and her hair was a raven black. She didn't look too old -- only about nine or ten. She glanced up at Bill with a white smile.  
  
"If you get a few Pomeg Berries for me, we can divide it," she said. "I'm hungry, and I'm sure you are as well."  
  
Come to think of it, Bill DID feel rather drained for an unknown reason. He figured he really DID feel hungry, even in this world, and so looked up at the tree. Far above them, among the green branches, four berries hung. Red in color and bell-shaped in general appearance, each one contained juices that would certainly delight the palate... if one could get past their hard exterior. But in any case, they certainly were a treat. In fact, Bill recalled spicy, bitter-sweet candies he used to have as a child made of those very berries. They weren't exactly PokéBlocks, though even Pokémon seemed to like them.  
  
A strange sensation came over him at that moment as the smile ran from his face. He realized that his memories didn't seem as if they belonged to him. He felt as if he never was that little human boy... or human at all. The unreality of this absurd world was eating away at his mind...  
  
But... Did it matter?  
  
It was a dark thought, but it took over Bill's mind. An inappropriate feeling of apathy entered him; he didn't care whether or not he returned to his human form. It didn't seem to be important anymore.  
  
With this, he ejected his Meowth claws and embedded them into the soft bark of the Pomeg Berry tree. Carefully, he climbed up the trunk, making his way closer and closer to the fruit of the tree. Within moments, in fact, he was at the branch and pulling himself along until at last, he reached the red crop. Charily, he used his claws to cut all four off. And just as cautiously, he made his way back to the trunk and down to solid ground next to the girl. Gratefully, she took two of the four (leaving two for Bill, as she promised) and began to eat in silence. Bill brought his share to his lips before a sudden fact came to mind.  
  
Persephone.  
  
He knew that, according to classical mythology, Persephone had been tricked into eating six seeds of a pomegranate, the fruit of the Underworld. As a result, she wound up being bound to the land of the dead, unable to come back to the land of the living except for one half of the year. And as Bill held the small fruit to his mouth, he stared at it in wonder. If he had eaten this, what would have happened?  
  
"If I ate this, would I be trapped here?" he inquired aloud.  
  
The girl polished off the first Pomeg Berry and stared at him strangely.  
  
"Like Persephone," Bill explained. "Would I be stuck here, like Persephone had been stuck in the Underworld?"  
  
The girl grinned as she brought the other Pomeg Berry to her lips.  
  
"Why should it matter to you?" she asked. "Don't you want to spend the rest of your life here in paradise? Nothing has to matter here. You have no responsibilities. No worries. And most of all, no rules to be bound by. If you wanted to break a pesky law of science, then go ahead and do it. It's not like anyone would care."  
  
She took a bite, chewed it, and swallowed thoughtfully.  
  
"Then again, nobody cares about you anymore outside of here, either," she added.  
  
Bill dropped the fruit he held gingerly in his paws. "What do you mean?"  
  
The girl smiled sweetly. "Nobody cares about you in the real world anymore. Nobody comes to visit you. Nobody says anything about you. You're simply a forgotten body occupying the bed of someone else."  
  
Bill felt something tug at his heart. It wouldn't be too surprising if that had been true, but... No. No, it couldn't be!  
  
"I don't believe you," he said flatly. "I know now that there are people out there who care about me and who don't think of me as an alien being. No. I'm not alone."  
  
With that, he stood up, placed both Pomeg Berries in the girl's lap, and began to walk down the hill. Suddenly, however, he heard a great screech. His head shot up, and he looked over his shoulder cautiously to see Ornithophobia rise from where the girl had been sitting just moments before. With another great screech, the sky filled with birds, all staring down at Bill with a strange, devious look upon their faces and in their beady eyes. Bill fell to his knees as he stared up at the feathered clouds far above him. He heard Ornithophobia's squawk, but it meant nothing to him as every bird swerved and pointed their beaks downward at him. Thousands of birds dove at an alarming rate, all headed straight towards him.  
  
Suddenly, a shadow burst from the ground, and from the depths of it came a set of gray claws that sliced through most of the birds with ease. A rain of feathers fell upon Bill in a harmless display. He stared at the figure as it took the form of Morpheus with his back turned towards the Meowth. Effortlessly, Morpheus glided towards Ornithophobia and stared into her wide, red eyes. Quickly, one of Morpheus' gray hands shot from the folds of his robes and pierced through Ornithophobia. She gave a strange, strangled sound for a few moments before at last, she disappeared in a puff of smoke and feathers. With this, Bill felt as if a large weight had been taken off of him. A weak smile drew across his lips because of this.  
  
"Don't smile yet," Morpheus muttered. "You have only a little bit further to go. Then comes a most difficult challenge. But, before that happens, I suppose we'll have to find what it is we're looking for, right?"  
  
Bill gave a vague nod. Morpheus turned around and descended back down the hill to join his young companion.  
  
A smirk drew across Morpheus' lips. "Well? Lead the way."  
  
With another nod, Bill turned and began leading the god out of the garden. He had no idea what he was about to face.  
  
---  
  
"Please! Just leave him on for a few more days!" Rose pleaded with the doctor as the tube was drawn out of her son's mouth. "I'm sure he'll wake up!"  
  
The doctor sighed. "I'm sorry, Mrs. McKenzie. It's been almost a full year since William was admitted here, and nothing seems to change. We've done everything we can. But don't worry. There's a possibility that William will come around due to the shock of not having life support. And even if he doesn't, the hospital will give you the money to carry out..."  
  
He stopped in mid-sentence and glanced at the mother, who only stared at him with eyes brimming with tears. He hadn't seen her husband around; usually, Davis would be up at the hospital, trying to sign the papers that would allow the doctors to pull the plug on him (though his wife and daughters always interfered). But everyone in that unit knew that the family was falling to shambles, and everyone was taking bets that Davis had either divorced Rose at last or just left her altogether.  
  
"I'm sorry," the doctor apologized before looking at the clipboard he carried. "There's nothing more we can do to help William."  
  
With that, he turned away and walked out of the room before Rose could protest. She was left, all alone in the room with her only and dying son.  
  
At last, she moved, but only to turn to the chair set up by his bed. She walked over, sat down, and stared with unseeing eyes at his young face. In a way, he looked like his father...  
  
Carefully, her hands made its way over to his and gently lifted it, holding his hand between her own. She squeezed it as tears began rolling down her eyes. This was the last place she wanted to see one of her children -- on a hospital bed, slowly slipping away into the afterlife.  
  
"William," she murmured softly as she cried.  
  
She could have sworn she felt his hand move just then. Perhaps he wasn't too far from reality after all... 


	9. Night Nine: Midsummer Night's Dream Ends

Author's responses:  
  
-To DarkCatXX: Yep. I finally continued. ; (And I finally did now as well! Ha to the rest of you who thought this would die a relatively boring death with a painful whimper!)  
  
And yes, most people DIDN'T know Miss Blaustein did both Bill and Meowth. (Yes, Miss Blaustein. It's a bit ambiguous to whether Maddie is male or female if you go by online sources alone. I usually refer to Maddie as a she anyways because most sources that don't refer to Maddie as an "it" refers to her as a "she.") That is, until she told the world in the audio commentary of Pokémon 4Ever. (Well, actually, most people STILL don't know, but oh well. ;)  
  
Anywho, yes, it seems strange that Bill's been in the hospital for almost a year. (Not quite, though -- you'll see why in the epilogue.) However, we also have to consider the fact that time moves erratically in Bill's dream world. In other words, what seems like a short time to him could actually be absurdly long. Likewise, a long time to him might actually be mere seconds. It's sort of like if you take a journey in your dream. What feels like days on end (which I've actually dreamt about -- longest dreamtime I've experienced was three days) is only actually a few hours, and if you feel like you just fell asleep at midnight, you could be waking up to the six AM alarm not a blink later.  
  
I'm disappointed that I couldn't hear your question; I always find responding to the reviews much more fun than writing the actual story. Oh well. ;  
  
By the way, I know you've updated; I just haven't had time to sit down and review yet. ;  
  
-To Sir-Egan: Wow. That's the most enthusiastic review I've gotten. (Aside from maybe the person who threatened to commit him/herself to an asylum if I didn't write a sequel to Whose Line is it Anyways?: Pokémon Style. I wonder if they're treating him/her well in there...) And I thank you kindly.  
  
-To Light Sneasel: Ah, yes. Indeed he HAD taken a step forward in "Haunted," but I can tell by your reaction to "Wishing on a Star of Hope" that you're surprised by the slight step back he took there. The thing is, yes, Bill is learning that he shouldn't allow the past to haunt him, but he's also got a handful of other problems to deal with, including the fact that he is (or at least, I portray him as) an enochlophobic/agoraphobic as well as an ornithophobic. In the seventh chapter, it almost appears as if he's taken a step backwards as of progress, though really, it's only a recollection of why he's afraid of crowds and birds. (Well, okay, that's not the reason why he's afraid of birds. I never got around to explaining that part.)  
  
Otherwise, I'm glad to hear reviews from you, mainly because you seem to have a knack for analyzing my installments and drawing from them points that everyone else seems to miss. Hope to hear from you soon.   
  
-To Melchior the Mewthree: Of COURSE Bill can't die! Not as long as I'M the writer! BWAHAHAHA!!  
  
Audience: Oo;  
  
Okay, maybe he can. But not in this one!  
  
Anywho, yes. Greek mythology rocks. It's a shame you don't really find references to it in Pokémon fanfiction that often. Or maybe I'm just looking in all the wrong places.  
  
---  
  
Night Nine: Midsummer Night's Dream Ends  
  
With every step through the labyrinth contained within the Lotus Temple, something new and unusual presented itself to Bill. There were things that were definitely symbols (though why he thought this, he couldn't quite tell); others were signs of the twisted insanity that was hidden deep within him. And there were still others that were a mix of the two. Venus fly traps dotted the hallway he had chosen to take, portraits of the most gruesome things covered the walls, and unmentionable horrors seemed to flow from every door.  
  
Just as Bill slammed the door shut on a rather frightening glimpse of Hell itself, he turned to Morpheus. The Meowth was pale and shaking. And why wouldn't he be? Fire, brimstone, every last shadow that thrilled him with terror. All of it dwelled behind that single door, innocent in appearance. Demons with faces so horrifying that no more than a brief description of them would send shudders down a statue's spine lifted clawed hands, planning on taking Bill within the dark depths of the fires to make him suffer for every last sin that had been burned into his soul.  
  
Bill shook terribly. He couldn't help it. Cold sweat soaked his pallid fur as he dropped to his knees, too afraid to press his forehead against the crimson door. He was too afraid to think at ALL. His eyes simply stared at the black line between the door and the tiled floor with wide, cat eyes, as if anticipating Satan and his minions to wriggle their hands through the crack and pull him down into an eternity of torment and other unimaginable horrors. His breath quickened, and for the first time in years, a quivering hand reached up and drew a cross over his body as a prayer spilled from his trembling lips in a faint whisper. He couldn't remember when he was this terrified before, and never would he be able to mimic such a feeling later on in life (much to his relief).  
  
Morpheus rested a hand on Bill's shoulder, causing the poor youth to jump slightly, then sigh in a helpless manner.  
  
"Are you alright?" Morpheus inquired.  
  
Bill didn't answer as he struggled to stand up on legs not unlike gelatin. What defined "alright" anymore? Alive? Well? Bill couldn't answer that question either as it crossed his mind. All of a sudden, a faint confusion spread within his brain, like a thin fog. Bill merely pursed his lips and shook his head, trying to throw off this feeling. He took a step forward and continued on with a bit of his old determination. He wouldn't let the Lotus Temple defeat him.  
  
For once, a look of worry crossed Morpheus' face as he watched Bill continue down the hall in silence.  
  
"Bill?" he asked again.  
  
Still no answer from the young soul. Morpheus frowned.  
  
"I was afraid of this," he said to himself. "This is going too far."  
  
With this, Morpheus disappeared into the shadows. Bill failed to notice as he continued on into... Into what? What was ahead of him?  
  
A strange feeling crept into his core. It was a feeling he did his best to ignore, to pretend that wasn't there, gnawing at his every being. It was a feeling of aimlessness.  
  
Abruptly, he turned to a door and opened it without thought or caution. It didn't seem to matter that there was a possibility that something behind it was dangerous. Bill seemed to have lost that thought just now; the glimpse of Hell clouded his senses and made him ignorant to anything around him. He stepped into the darkness, ignoring the threat of the unknown.  
  
Automatically, the door slammed behind him, and lights lit up the room, bouncing off the mirrored walls. The wooden floor moved beneath his feet, spinning him around the circular space to gaze at every mirror. Nauseated by the whirl, Bill stared up but found no comfort. Above him, a blue, domed ceiling spotted with white stars around a sun with a demented look plastered on its face spun above him, laughing to add to the strange carnival music playing in his ears. The room was mocking him.  
  
Placing all four paws on the floor, Bill stared straight ahead, watching as a Meowth moved into each mirror, confused and helpless. He didn't know what to make of any of it. He didn't know what to do anymore. Everything was a blur. He could feel his mind spinning out of control like the very floorboards he knelt upon.  
  
He lowered his head, staring at the wood as drops of sweat fell onto it, making small, clear domes on the wood. He wanted nothing more than to find a way out. But in all of this -- in his dream, in the long journey where every flaw of him was bared, every wound open once again, he found nothing. Nothing!  
  
"Let me go," he whispered before collapsing.  
  
For the first time throughout the journey, he closed his eyes and submitted himself to pure blackness. In the distance, he heard a simple whisper of a voice that he couldn't identify... but sounded strangely familiar.  
  
"Not yet."  
  
---  
  
"Why are you?"  
  
Groggily, Bill opened his eyes to the soft voice. He blinked a few times as he remained still in the water. Water?  
  
Slowly, he sat up, realizing that he wasn't at all where he had been when he had fainted. Instead, he was in shallow water, among tall poles shooting up from the muddy ground like bamboo chutes. The sky was obscured by the poles; his surroundings were only gray and black. Puzzled, he glanced about to find any sign of where he was and how he could get back. He WAS in the Lotus Temple... wasn't he?  
  
"Why are you?"  
  
Confused, Bill looked around to find the source of the voice. A group of poles near him parted, and through this crawled a Slowpoke. Bill watched it with a detached sort of interest. He was busy being lost in his own thoughts.  
  
Finally, the Slowpoke opened its mouth and emitted a voice from its throat (though it never otherwise moved its great, white lips).  
  
"Why are you?" it asked for a third time.  
  
Bill blinked. "Do you mean WHO am I? If you do, my name is Bill."  
  
The Slowpoke shook its head. "No, not 'WHO are you?'... WHY are you?"  
  
"What do you mean?" Bill inquired. "Why am I what?"  
  
The Slowpoke hesitated before finally replying, "Why are you what you are?"  
  
Bill smiled awkwardly. "Morpheus transformed me into a Meowth."  
  
At this, the Slowpoke sighed. "You don't understand. Why are you you and not anything else?"  
  
Bill tilted his head. "Do you mean something like 'a rose by any other name still smells as sweet'?"  
  
"If you wish to think of it that way," the Slowpoke responded with a nod. "What is your essence?"  
  
Bill sat in thought for a long while, feeling the cold waters around him. He thought for a long while, trying to find something deep inside him that would provide an answer.  
  
"Don't answer," the Slowpoke instructed.  
  
Bill gazed at it with a blank stare.  
  
"You shouldn't answer," it explained, "because no answer is suitable. There are things in this world that are what they are because they are, and there are things in this world that are what they are because they choose to be. If you are the former, then that is good. If you are the latter, then that is better. Which are you?"  
  
Bill's ears lowered as he continued to gawk at the Slowpoke with utter perplexity. Was that a rhetorical question? And if so... What the hell was Slowpoke talking about in the first place?  
  
"'Ere's a question for you," Bill muttered impatiently. "Why are you asking me nonsensical questions?"  
  
"You're right," Slowpoke answered. "YOU should be asking YOURSELF these questions."  
  
Bill stood up. He had had enough. This world was insane, and he knew that he himself was going the same way. In the quiet of the apparent night, he moved his hind paws through the water, splashing the dark liquid.  
  
"I don't have time for this," he murmured, half to himself.  
  
"If you don't have time for finding the key, then what DO you have time for?" Slowpoke inquired loudly.  
  
Bill stopped and looked over his shoulder. "What do you mean by 'the key'?"  
  
"Morpheus sent me," Slowpoke told him.  
  
Bill frowned. "I figured that."  
  
"He knew I could help you," the pink Pokémon continued, ignoring the youth's comment. "The only way you can escape is by figuring out why you are here."  
  
Slowly, Bill's patience began to diminish. "Morpheus brought me here. Ask him."  
  
"Not HERE," Slowpoke said unwearyingly. "Why do you exist? What is your purpose?"  
  
"I don't know!" Bill blurted out, frustrated by Slowpoke's vague questions.  
  
Suddenly, there was a long silence. Bill's aggravation was suddenly replaced with a dangerous realization.  
  
"Oh my god," he whispered. "I don't know..."  
  
Slowpoke stood by, watching the young man's reaction.  
  
"All this time... I thought I knew..." Bill shook his head and knelt in the dark water. "But... I don't. I don't know... I don't know why I'm here."  
  
"All this time, you were shown WHO you are," Slowpoke added, "but you weren't shown WHY you are. Why are you what you are, Bill? Did you choose to be that way?"  
  
Once again, Bill stared at Slowpoke, dumbfounded. He had chosen to be a Pokémon researcher. THAT he was certain of. But what about everything else? Decisions based on other people's decisions. Choices made because of limitations. Times when he didn't have a choice affecting times when he did. But did he choose what he was deep inside? What WAS he? A thousand questions sprouted in his mind from one seed.  
  
"I see you have no answer," Slowpoke uttered.  
  
"No."  
  
A sad glance crossed Slowpoke's face. "In that case--"  
  
"No, I didn't choose," Bill interrupted. "I never chose to be born. I never chose to be human. I never chose to be vulnerable, and yes, even my decisions were based on past events I had no control over. No, I didn't choose."  
  
"You are what you are because you are." Slowpoke nodded in acceptance. "That is how most people are. However, few realize that they cannot be exactly what they want to be. Something inside them is different from what their ideal self is. Sometimes, it's due to mistakes they've made. Sometimes, it's due to the fact that they came into your world the way they are, and they simply cannot change that. You, however, apparently realized that. How does that make you feel?"  
  
"Lost," Bill replied as he lowered his head a bit.  
  
"That is understandable," Slowpoke assured him. "Now, tell me. You yourself once said that every living creature has a purpose. Do you know what yours is?"  
  
"Would it be a crime if I said 'no'?" Bill asked cautiously as he raised his head.  
  
"No, I was simply curious," Slowpoke admitted. "In fact, it would be a crime if you DID. No one knows their purpose when they start out. It is only when you finish and look back at what you had created when you realize what was there."  
  
It was a strange statement (let alone conversation), and yet... By then, something inside Bill understood. A part of him was still lost on the matter, but most of his being comprehended what Slowpoke was trying to tell him and agreed. This dawning became apparent in his eyes as he gazed steadily into those of Slowpoke.  
  
"You understand," Slowpoke half-stated.  
  
With this, Bill nodded. "I'm not sure if I do completely, but... Yes. I think I do."  
  
"Uncertainty is certainly better than certainty," Slowpoke pointed out (reminding Bill of the Cheshire Cat in the process). "You seem to be ready. Follow."  
  
Slowpoke had no sooner spilled the final word from its mouth before it turned and receded from whence it came. Bill followed closely, pushing through the forest of poles that closed in around Slowpoke and him. Long moments passed, and Bill was more wary of the Slowpoke's tedious pace than the shadows around him. He didn't notice as one moved, opening its glowing eyes for a second. Eyes that watched the white cat following the painfully pink creature. Eyes that disappeared not long after.  
  
"Where are we going?" Bill finally asked, breaking the unnerving silence between the two Pokémon.  
  
"Wait. Wait," Slowpoke answered, almost breathlessly.  
  
Again, neither of them said anything, and it remained that way until Slowpoke pushed down a final pole and moved its head in a way to beckon Bill to continue forward. The Meowth hesitated before at last stepping forward, into the large, round clearing. Several clangs told him that Slowpoke had departed, leaving Bill standing at the edge of deeper waters.  
  
Suddenly, a light turned on somewhere below, throwing a blue glow throughout the clearing. Bill wondered momentarily where the source of this radiance was before pushing it into the back of his mind, as if it didn't really matter. The light wavered from under the waters, throwing strange, moving patterns on the walls formed by the metal poles. It looked so incredibly serene it was beautiful.  
  
But as a lotus passed directly over the light source and floated towards the middle of the pool, Bill's feline eyes spotted something else. Someone was standing in the center with his back turned towards the only other occupant of the room -- wet, as if he had been dropped into the pool. His thin arms wrapped around himself tightly as he hunched over just a tiny bit. His body was thin and willowy, wrapped in pale skin decorated with beads of water. He wasn't ashamed, but why would he be? His head was bent down as dark hair clung to his face and skin with dampness. Bill realized at once what he was looking at, but he said nothing.  
  
Noticing that he was being watched, the youth in the middle turned his head slightly, staring at the Meowth with dark eyes. Slowly, he turned around, pushing the water out of the way. He looked peaceful and relieved as he began walking slowly towards the Meowth on the depth's edge.  
  
Nightmare burst from the darkness above, descending like a bird of prey onto the target he had been wanting to reach for quite a long time as he only hissed as a warning. Just about halfway down, however, gray claws reached up and planted themselves into his back, pushing through dark flesh and piercing the skin of the other side, turning the bones and organs they touched into mere gelatin. Nightmare's green eyes opened to their maximum width as he gave a couple small squeaks. He gave one last look at his assailant before vanishing in a puff of black smoke and dust. There was no longer any darkness within that heart or mind. Bill was safe.  
  
Morpheus simply frowned and let his gray limb fall to his side.  
  
"No one will be permitted to interfere now," he murmured. "Not when Bill is so close..."  
  
The shameless youth far below reached the edge of the depth where the mud gently sloped up into shallows. He knelt down in the water, submerging up to his shoulders as he kept his dark eyes fixed on the Meowth, waiting for something to happen. When it didn't, a hand reached out from the waters and touched the side of Bill's furry face.  
  
"Identity meets consciousness," the human muttered before taking one of Bill's paws. "You've found me at last, and now, we may be one again..."  
  
There was a bright flash of light as Morpheus watched the remerging. Once the light faded, he wasn't surprised to see Bill stand in the pool in his human form, wrapped in robes of white. He looked himself over carefully before he lifted his eyes to Morpheus and smiled. He opened his mouth, about to say something when he stopped. He couldn't get the words out of his mouth. In fact... He couldn't breathe. He grabbed the cloth on the front of his chest and collapsed into the water as Morpheus swiftly dropped to grab Bill's hand.  
  
Suddenly, the world went black...  
  
---  
  
Crying. He could hear crying. From where, he didn't know, but that's what it was. Was it another part of his dream?  
  
Slowly, he opened his eyes to find himself staring up at a white ceiling with a doctor standing over him, attempting to take his pulse. However, the doctor looked straight into his eyes and smiled before turning away.  
  
"He's awake, Mrs. McKenzie," the doctor said. "He came to after all."  
  
A thousand thoughts flooded Bill's mind. 'What? What's going on? Where...?'  
  
As soon as he sat up, he found himself nearly knocked down again by the embrace of his mother and sisters, all crying in pure bliss. He didn't care if he didn't understand how he wound up where he was. He simply allowed them to suffocate him in love, welcoming him back to the world of the logical. 


	10. Epilogue: Final Dream

Foreword: Egads! It's complete! This is the last installment! I've actually created a multi-chapter work that I wasn't lazy enough to turn into a plot bunny! AND it wasn't (entirely) a piece of crap!  
  
...I think Hell just froze over...  
  
---  
  
Epilogue: Final Dream  
  
Bill opened his eyes to find himself in an English-style garden, standing beside Morpheus. With a quick gasp, the young researcher looked down at himself, hoping that he wasn't a Meowth once more. Oddly enough, he wasn't. He maintained his human form, though he seemed to be dressed in odd clothing. Like a colorful version of a Victorian-style suit, even more intriguing than what he usually wore.  
  
"Morpheus? What are you doing here?" Bill asked as he at last looked up at his companion.  
  
"It is time," Morpheus informed him.  
  
Bill tilted his head. "Time? Time for what?"  
  
Morpheus, as always, refused to provide a straight answer. "Follow me..."  
  
With that, the god floated forward, down a cobblestone pathway between rows of rose bushes. Bill walked forward, feeling the hard, cold stones beneath his bare feet. He followed Morpheus, taking the time to admire the flowers and foliage all around him. He couldn't imagine why he was there, but a feeling of tranquility settled deep inside him. He didn't even feel at all panicked as Morpheus led him into the maze of hawthorn.  
  
After what seemed like hours, Morpheus stopped at the opening of a large, circular clearing within the labyrinth. Bill nearly ran into the back of the god of dreams due to his lack of attention. The mortal gave the other a curious look as a pair of golden eyes gazed over a dark shoulder with a blank expression.  
  
"We have arrived," Morpheus told him.  
  
"Arrived where?" Bill inquired.  
  
Morpheus closed his eyes and stepped aside, revealing a table before him. Bill looked closely at it, noticing that it looked a little like how he imagined the tea party with Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the March Hare to be like. A teapot sat in the middle of the white table covered with a green and maroon table cloth. Around it sat a plate of biscuits, a sugar bowl, and other things one would normally find at a tea party, all painted in a variety of colors. Two white chairs were set at the table with round seats and heart-shaped backings. One of these had been empty, but the other...  
  
Bill's eyes widened as he looked at her. The little, plump girl with short, dirty-blonde hair and sparkling, brown eyes, still dressed as the little girl who stumbled into Wonderland one boring afternoon. However, Bill could see that just behind her were a pair of pure, white wings, small and simple, like a cherub's.  
  
"I knew I had to get you SOMETHING for your birthday," Morpheus whispered to him with a smile. "So, I made a few arrangements and brought you her. Happy birthday, Bill."  
  
Bill only nodded, unable to find his voice.  
  
"Well? Go talk to her!" Morpheus placed a hand on Bill's back and pushed him towards the table.  
  
The youth walked slowly to the small "party," gave the girl a nod, and sat down in the empty chair.  
  
"It's been a long time," the little girl stated. "I've missed talking to you."  
  
Bill could only nod again.  
  
"So, did you keep your promise?" she asked.  
  
Bill snapped out of his stunned condition and blinked. "W-what?"  
  
She grinned and laughed. "Your promise! Your promise, silly! Remember? I promised you that I'd go around the world and see everything, and you promised me that you'd find yourself! And we promised each other that whenever we're done, we'll come and tell each other all about what we saw! Do you remember, Bill?"  
  
A sheepish grin spread across his face. "O-of course, Alice."  
  
"Good! Because I did!" Alice smiled broadly. "Oh, and you won't believe what I saw! Being an angel let me go wherever I wanted to go! I got to see the Eiffel Tower and a Chinese New Year celebration in San Francisco and Stonehenge and... Oh, I got to see EVERYTHING, Bill! It was just like in the books you read to me a long time ago! It was so much fun!"  
  
Bill smiled. Though she's been everywhere, Alice hadn't changed. She still saw only the good side of things, the best of the world. And though it was incredibly naïve, the sense of joy within the girl seemed to radiate to everyone around her. It was this that caused Bill to feel that very warmth and contentment deep in his heart that he hadn't felt since the day before Alice fell ill.  
  
"How about you?" Alice finally asked. "What did YOU do?"  
  
Bill kept his grin on his face. "I found myself, Alice. With the help of my friend, Morpheus, I think I truly understand the way I feel about things."  
  
He went on to tell her about the places he had went to in his dreams -- the circus, the city, the ocean, the Lotus Temple... Everything. When he was done, Alice beamed.  
  
"I wish I could have gone with you," Alice told him. "That sounds like fun!"  
  
"Well, I'm glad to be home now," Bill replied.  
  
A bell echoed in the air. Alice looked up, and a sad look drew across her face.  
  
"I've got to go," she said solemnly. "I have to go back to Heaven."  
  
Bill frowned. "But... If you leave, will I ever see you again?"  
  
Alice emitted her wind-chime giggle. "Of course you will, silly! I'll come back in your dreams, and we'll be together again someday. Besides..."  
  
She extended her wings and took flight, but not before reaching over and touching Bill's chest with one finger.  
  
"I never left you," Alice informed him. "As long as you remember me, I'll always be in your heart."  
  
With that, she flew towards the sky, disappearing in a flash of white light. Morpheus glanced at Bill and smiled before ascending himself into the lingering illumination.  
  
"Thank you, Morpheus," Bill whispered as he closed his eyes.  
  
---  
  
Bill woke up to find himself in his childhood home. He put his hands behind his head and remained lying on his back, staring at the ceiling in thought. He remembered little of the night before. Nothing much happened, save for a dinner with his mother and sisters in celebration for his awakening at last. Well, actually, there was something that happened not long after he put Ellie to bed.  
  
He remembered that he was sitting on the mattress, staring at his lap as he heard his mother's sobs from down the hall. He wondered if his sisters heard it too, but in any case, he had to talk to his mother. Alone.  
  
Slowly, he stood and walked out of his room, slinking quietly to the door to the master bedroom where he saw his mother sitting on the bed. She was looking at the wedding album as she cried uncontrollably. Bill couldn't figure out why, but he noticed that something (or, rather, some things) seemed to be missing from the room.  
  
"Mum?" he murmured softly.  
  
She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked her gently.  
  
She didn't answer as she lowered her head again. Bill came up with another question, and after a moment of only opening and closing his mouth in an effort to speak, he managed to present it to her.  
  
"Father... He isn't at the casino right now, is he?"  
  
At that, his mother sobbed loudly. Bill tilted his head and felt a tug on his sleeve. He glanced to the side to see Beth at his elbow with a concerned look in her eyes.  
  
"We need to talk," she told him. "You've missed something important while you were in that coma."  
  
Bill nodded and followed Beth into her room. As soon as he walked in, she shut the door and leaned against it.  
  
"He isn't at the casino," Beth told him, replying to his question. "He's gone."  
  
Bill looked at her with a perplexed glance. "Gone?"  
  
Beth nodded. "He left us not long before you came to, about a week or so before the time when Ellie literally pulled the plug on you."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Beth sighed. "We don't know. He didn't say anything about it. He just said he was going to pick up a few things at the supermarket, but he never came back. He..."  
  
Beth stopped herself. She didn't want to tell Bill that it was probably because of him. All of their parents' arguments involved either Bill or Ellie. Whether or not Davis thought of his children as something other than problems, it was hard to say, but that's the way things were.  
  
"If there's anything I can do -- anything from send you more money than I usually do or move back here -- please, just tell me," Bill urged.  
  
Beth said nothing as she walked forward and stared into her brother's eyes. With that, she embraced him and cried on his shoulder. Unsure of what to do, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye and hugged her back.  
  
"Just act like the world isn't going to Hell," she choked. "If you could show me how to do that, then things would be just perfect."  
  
Unable to find much else to say, he told her something simple.  
  
"There are things in this world that are what they are because they are, and there are things in this world that are what they are because they choose to be."  
  
She didn't even bother asking for an explanation as she continued to cry.  
  
Presently, Bill's expression turned to one of grief before he sighed and closed his eyes. Carefully, he sat up and threw his legs over the bed. It was a new day, and as his philosophy stated, it was time to face whatever was ahead, no matter what it might be. He nodded to himself before standing up. Everything was going to be okay.  
  
"You're not alone," he murmured to himself as he pulled clothes out of a closet and got dressed. "You're not alone..."  
  
With that, he smiled and walked out of his bedroom. He walked past Beth and said a cheerful "good morning" to her, causing her to smile. That was her assurance. Everything was going to be alright.  
  
In the family room, he found Ellie, quietly playing with a Gameboy as her mother cooked breakfast in the next room. Bill paused to glance at the grandfather clock to find that it was only eight in the morning. His eyes trailed from the numbers on the face (which seemed almost foreign to him after being trapped in a world where time meant nothing) to the pictures on the wall. His fingers rose to touch the frame of one. A Christmas portrait...  
  
He tore his eyes away and knelt down to Ellie, who sat on the couch and didn't notice his presence.  
  
"Good morning, Ellie," he greeted softly.  
  
Ellie turned off her Gameboy and put it aside before glancing up at her older brother and giving him a shy smile.  
  
"Before breakfast, I want to teach you a song in the backyard," he said. "I taught it to a friend of mine a long, long time ago, and it made her happy. Maybe it will do the same for you."  
  
He offered a hand to her. She smiled broadly and took it, looking at her older brother with a mixture of fondness and awe as he led her to the backdoor and into the fresh, morning air (though it was still of the city). He turned her around and knelt down to her level again.  
  
"Now, the words are simple and easy to remember, and the tune is sure to lift your spirits, no matter what," he told her with a smile. "Alright?"  
  
Ellie nodded and listened as Bill began to sing.  
  
"On Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs  
Of every head he's had the pleasure to have known  
And all the people that come and go  
Stop and say hello  
  
"On the corner is a banker with a motorcar  
The little children laugh at him behind his back  
And the banker never wears a mack  
In the pouring rain...  
Very strange."  
  
Ellie giggled at the pseudo-perplexed look Bill had on his face as he sang about the banker. He grinned again and stood up before taking her hands and dancing with her around the backyard.  
  
"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes...  
There beneath the blue suburban skies  
I sit, and meanwhile back..."  
  
Bill stopped and bent down to continue.  
  
"On Penny Lane, there is a fireman with an hourglass  
And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen  
He likes to keep his fire engine clean  
It's a clean machine."  
  
Bill stood again and danced about with Ellie as he hummed. He didn't notice as his mother and Beth stood at the window, watching as smiles grew across their faces.  
  
"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes...  
Four of fish and finger pies  
In summer; meanwhile back..."  
  
Ellie sat on the tree stump sitting in the middle of the yard as Bill once again knelt down to her.  
  
"Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout  
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray  
And though she feels as if she's in a play  
She is anyway...  
  
"On Penny Lane, the barber shaves another customer  
We see the banker sitting waiting for a trim  
Then the fireman rushes in  
From the pouring rain...  
Very strange."  
  
---  
  
Outside the city, Davis continued to walk up the hill. He had stayed in various places in Goldenrod City throughout the month, but he then decided that the city itself wasn't for him. And so, he looked back down on the city for the last time before turning and heading towards Violet City. He didn't know where he was going to go or what he was going to do there. He just knew that he wasn't good enough to be a father or a husband. He had to leave it all behind.  
  
It was a shame he would miss his youngest daughter and his only son singing together. And while the upbeat tune escaped their throats, one told the other that everything was going to be alright. And indeed they were going to be, in Ellie's opinion.  
  
"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes...  
There beneath the blue suburban skies  
I sit, and meanwhile back...  
  
"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes  
There beneath the blue suburban skies...  
  
"Penny Lane..." 


End file.
